
(Class _3^M_ 
E4A5 



Book 



GopyrightN", 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Of this work seven hundred and fifty copies have been 
printed from type, and the type destroyed. 



December, 1910. 



By Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., LL.D. 



IRELAND UNDER ENGLISH RULE 
Or a Plea for the Plaintiff. 2 Volumes 

INCIDENTS OF MY LIFE 

Professional — Literary — Social 
With Services to Ireland 



Incidents 
of My Life 



Professional— Literary —Social 

With Services in the Cause of Ireland 



rpi Thoraas Addis Emmet, M.D. i i r\ 

1 nomas ^\ci , ^ , . m.o., LL.U. 

Trom a photograph, 1909 " •»*'• 

President of the Irish 1 ^„.. ..„.,, . . . .>„....ca during the Term of its 

Existence, Knight-Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the 

Great, and Member of Many Professional Societies at 

Home and Abroad 



With Twenty-seven Ulustratiom 



G. P. Putnam's Soa; 

New York «nd Lo 




(^:??>vr>^*2-fe. 



Incidents 
of My Life 



Professional — Literary —Social 

With Services in the Cause of Ireland 



By 



Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., LL.D. 

President of the Irish Federation of America during the Term of its 

Existence, Knight-Commander of the Order of St, Gregory the 

Great, and Member of Many Professional Societies at 

Home and Abroad 



With Twenty-seven Illustrations 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Cbe Ikntcherbocker press 

1911 



^w^ 



V 



Copyright, igii 

BY 

THOMAS ADDIS EMMET 



•Che Itnicftetboclier press, flew ISotft 



Cci.A:^8;i070 



2)eblcateb 

TO THE REMEMBRANCE OF COUNTLESS BLESSINGS 
WITH A HOST OF 

SINCERE FRIENDS 

AND A 

HAPPY LIFE 
THANKS BE TO GOD 



Preface 



'Otir style is our personal signature afiixed to ovuc idea." 

Ernest Hello. 




HE preface is the most important part of a book, yet 
often it is never read. If properly written, it should 
develop a favorable impression, and as the author 
thus has the first say, it should be his fault when 
he fails to properly direct public opinion. The 
opportunity is thus given him to create the first 
impression, which in the case of most people is not 
only the more abiding but is often the only one received. Most mortals 
like to be humbugged, for it is very restful to one's vanity to feel that 
one has an opinion, and it is natural to think it all one's own brain-work; 
moreover, a peaceful mind contributes as much to mental digestion as 
the proper digestion of food by the stomach. If the preface gives the 
hint, it is a great advantage to know when to laugh, and when this is 
done heartily, without hesitation, it sounds well and always makes a 
favorable impression on those about, who have not had the same advan- 
tage to guide them. The unthinking, under such circumstances, always 
give credit to the boisterous one for the existence of more brains than 
are generally possessed. 

It was found after the death of a noted clergyman that he had written 
on the margin of his sermons "cry here," "be slightly jocular," some- 
where else, etc. Now these directions facilitated a prompt exhibition of 
feeling on his part, which, whether called for or not, was always touching 
in appearance, at least to his audience, and seemingly creditable to him- 
self. The force of example is great, and with the women of the con- 
gregation in tears a pleasing break is made in the monotony attending 
most sermons which have to be read. 

Many readers are satisfied as they are thankful to know where the 
joke comes in, something not easily determined, as the author himself, 
with so little [as a rule] on his mind, does not always know when to 



vi Preface 

laugh at his own jokes, and besides there are so many things in this 
world in which there is no joke. The clergyman with his marginal notes 
had a great advantage in being able to let his congregation know when to 
laugh or cry, but the author of a book cannot indicate to the reader by 
the same method when it would be in good taste to give an expression 
of feeling. Yet after all, a great deal has to be left to the imagination of 
the reader, and the only difficulty then is where the reader has no imagi- 
nation, or where there is nothing to laugh at. The best plan is to leave 
the reader free, for it is but fair after all, when the money has been paid 
for the book, that the purchaser should have the option of laughing or 
not. It is certainly very difficult to take your cue from your neighbor, as 
a smile is not always an indication of mirth — ^we have the opportunity 
given us very early in life to realize this fact, or at least, others see it 
when we are sleeping, and we are liable at any time to suffer should we 
laugh with, or at, some one having a toothache or who is simply laughing 
to keep his courage up, for the probabilities would be then an occasion 
given us of laughing on the other side of our mouth. 

It is a good plan on the part of the reader to assume, on evidence of 
any restlessness or want of clearness on the part of the writer, that he is 
about to perpetrate a joke. It is well then to laugh heartily. Should the 
product prove only a mouse, as from a mountain in labor, or a false 
alarm, the writer will be none the worse, and the reader will get credit 
for possessing a sagacious mind. This may be an error in judgment, 
but it is well to take what you can get, especially when it has cost you 
nothing. Under all circumstances a good deal has to be taken on faith 
with the telling of every story, and much has to be left to the imagination, 
where often none exists. It is said that Napoleon lost the battle of Water- 
loo in consequence of dyspepsia, so that the battle proved no joke to him. 
The state of the stomach does have much to do with the brightness of 
every one, but the lack of perceptibility as to the point of the story is 
generally due to stupidity. 

Appearances are sometimes deceptive and the cause of a joke may 
be unseen. A writer is not necessarily witty, in fact he might not see a 
joke should he accidentally stumble on one, and often to read what he 
has written is anything but a joke, consequently, he would suffer from 
an injustice to be accused of making one. It is certainly hard to suffer 
from any circumstance for which you are not responsible. Not unlike the 
condition of a man who, calling to spend the evening with his sweetheart, 
found the house on fire and she calling for help. Recollecting seeing 
a long plank resting against a building he had passed, he placed it under 
the window, down which she was able to slide into his arms. But his 
astonishment was great to have each ear soundly boxed and have her 



Preface vii 

leave him in great indignation to join her friends. When he took down 
the board to return it, his soHloquy was: "By the Holy Mother and all 
the Saints, how was I to know the like of that nail was in the plank?" 
Evidently this was no joke to the interested party, and as nothing could 
be seen to laugh at, much has to be left to the imagination. 

I once heard a story of an old judge in North Carolina who stumbled 
into making a pun, or at least, he was told he had made one. He was 
very fond of repeating the incident, but never having familiarized himself 
with the point of the story, did not always succeed in making the expected 
impression. The point was on conducting his court ' ' without ceremony ' ' 
in the absence of two important witnesses Mary and Sarah Mooney. 
But the point, as regards the "absence of ceremony" was never appre- 
ciated by his audience in the substitution of the name of Mary Mooney 
for that of her sister. After he had had his laugh (and he was the only 
one who did laugh) he offered the consolation: "Now it didn't strike 
me at first, either, but it is very funny and it will come to you in time. " 

I had great difficulty in determining where I should begin my narra- 
tive. Being a Southern man, I am entitled to begin " 'For de war, " but 
like an ass between two bundles of hay and embarrassed where to begin, 
I am also of Irish blood, and as such, "the year of the big wind in 
Ireland" is also at my disposal. The Irish point of reckoning has the 
advantage in being nearer the date of my birth, and being at so remote a 
period it would enable me "to draw a long bow, "—or one longer than 
modesty would allow, if I identified my narrative with a more recent 
date. 

I am, however, fully aware that writers of autobiography are generally 
dubbed liars or perverters, and having great respect for the Psalmist as a 
close observer of nature, I have, so far as relates to myself, written as 
little as possible of myself. But in other respects, it is not unlike the 
saying: " It is as bad to be condemned for stealing a lamb as a sheep, " 
so it is well in telling a story to make a good one, while we are about it. 

Stories connected with "the big wind in Ireland" which occurred 
during a blizzard in January or March, 1839, for both dates have been 
given, were formerly not always accepted without some expression of 
incredulity. But of late years they are not often doubted, as the burden 
of proof, or onus probandi, would then rest with the skeptic, a position 
which is not tenable in the absence of proof, which can only be gained from 
the few persons yet alive; and they may have forgotten all about it. 
It is, therefore, left an open question to believe or not, yet the plan is a 
good one to enjoy all the fun, as the laugh often turns on the Munchausen 
element these stories possess. 

An old man who had in time been accepted, if by common consent, 



vi» Preface 

as an authority on the "big wind in Ireland, " was once asked what was 
his private opinion as to the exaggeration. He stated it was a dreadful 
calamity, and as a whole he did not think the accounts had been greatly 
exaggerated. Yet, he had heard one story he thought might possibly 
be open to question as being an exaggeration. He said "the big wind in 
Ireland" was unlike any other wind and did not come in piiifs, but with 
a steady and unyielding force. He told about a horse which had been 
standing with his tail to the wind for some time, and turned to face it. 
The wind continued to blow steadily and without intermission, so that 
the horse's neck was gradually shortened and pushed inward, luitil at 
length the wind getting a purchase on the head, the animal was suddenly 
turned inside out, and the horse, in his fright, ran backward for fully 
twenty miles before he could stop himself ! 

If I am to be judged as to the truthfulness of my stories by the com- 
pany I keep, and which was not of my choosing, ' I may suffer by compari- 
son, for I have had but little aptitude in telUng stories which would be 
worthy of those told in connection with "the big wind in Ireland. " I 
will, however, do my best. 

Being somewhat guileless by nature, I am not conscious of having 
followed any other course than that of giving an honest and simple 
narrative of my past life, and it is therefore scarcely fair that I should be 
considered a "blower, " with all due respect to the "big wind in Ireland. " 
But if I have been at fault in recording some detail, it is owing to the 
distorted impression retained from childhood, or to the impairment of 
my recollection owing to the lapse of time. 

In this narrative I have presented a comparatively small portion 
only of my experience in life, and have omitted many amusing incidents, 
and many of great interest in relating to the living. I have chiefly 
alluded to the dead, and at the same time good taste has dictated that 
much in relation to them and their friends should remain buried, out of 
respect for the living. What I have written I have tried to present in a 
spirit indicative of peace and good-will to all men, as I wished neither 
to reflect on the acts of the dead while in the flesh, nor to wound the 
feelings of any one living. No matter how great the provocation may 
have been formerly, to the detriment of my good temper, it seems as if 
with each passing year the importance grows less in respect to both the 
actor and the action. It may be a subject for criticism as to my clear 
recitals of details in this narrative, not as if they were the impressions of a 
child, but those of a mature mind, and this is true. As a child I was 
unlike any other one I have ever known. After seeing anything, or over- 
hearing a conversation on any subject which interested me, and almost 
everything did, I invariably, as soon as I had the opportunity, "played" 



Preface i^ 

that I was the original person speaking and I tried to recall exactly every 
word said, and every gesture of personal peculiarity, which I repeated for 
my own amusement. When I saw anything of interest I always described 
it minutely, to myself, as if I were giving an account to some one else. 
Every time afterward whenever the subject happened to come up in 
my mind, it always interested me to recall every detail. This cultivated 
an instinct for seeing and hearing everything going on about me and kept 
my mind as a child always active. All through life I have preserved to 
some extent the same peculiarities, and on my power for close observa- 
tion was based my professional success. 

The reader may find that an undue amount of space and attention 
has been given to the consideration of historical matters in connection 
with this country and Ireland, to politics, questions of political economy, 
and religion. Every important point which was of personal interest to 
me has been considered, for all these subjects have directly or indirectly 
tended to shape my character and life. 

I am by nature an investigator and can take nothing but religious 
matters on faith, and to do this needed much thought and study. From 
a want of early logical training I must always lack the evidence of great 
depth of thought, but I have never held an opinion on any subject which 
was not original, and as much a part of my identity as one of the features 
of my face would be. These matters are, therefore, not mentioned for 
display or to force my views upon the attention of others; but I am so 
identified with the opinions I hold that it would be impossible to form 
any judgment unless the reader was made familiar with what was the 
subject of my thoughts. As regards matters of faith, at least, I am fully 
in accord with the views expressed by the celebrated Rev. Father Arthur 
O'Leary, who was a lifelong friend of Wesley. In O'Leary's memoirs is 
mentioned the incident where on one occasion the Methodist clergyman 
took exception to the existence of purgatory, and was disposed to keep 
his hand in by discussing the matter. Father O'Leary's answer was: 
"Now, John, I won't be after disputing the matter with you. You are 
welcome to have it all your own way and might go further, and fare 
worse!" 

Reference is made to many historical subjects which may be judged 
to have no connection with my life, but these incidents have been the 
subject of my personal investigation. 

I have often given a synopsis of what I have written on these sub- 
jects, and I have referred, I think, to but few incidents which will not 
interest the reader. There are given many incidents connected with my 
early life, which may be thought too trivial, to appear in the memoirs 
of a staid octogenarian. But I have a number of young grandchildren 



X Preface 

who will enjoy my early experiences, and I must confess that I have had 
myself many a hearty laugh over the recollection of them, I am almost 
sure, as I am approaching the period for my second childhood, I would 
enjoy on the sly a ride on the back of one of the " ' razorbacks " at the 
present day, if I were able to hold on. 

There may be many features found in the book which are by no 
means conventional, but as we take our bacon, so the streak of lean and 
fat must go together, as it would be impossible for me to get up anything 
according to rule. 

There is a great deal of fun lying around loose and unclaimed in this 
world, if people would only look for it and take it as it comes. It may 
be I am a partial witness, and I may mislead myself, but I have had too 
keen a sense of humor all my life not to have picked up here and there, 
a good deal to laugh at. Some of this I have put into the book but I 
have had to be very guarded, although I like a good story. But at my 
age the reader might consider it undignified for me to attempt the part 
of either Mark Twain or Joe Miller, but a better reason is that I am 
neither Mark Twain nor Joe Miller, and can never be either. Where I 
have attempted to be less prosy, I only hope in time the point of each 
joke may come to the reader. I feel the more hopeful that such will 
be the case, as I am certain I have in no instance substituted the name 
of Mary Mooney for that of her sister. 

T. A. E. 

New York, October, 1910. 



Contents 



Chapter I 

Family history— The Tucker family— My birth and early childhood— Never re- 
quired much sleep — The approximate number of patients treated during my pro- 
fessional life — Early grievances of the nursery — Always on the go — Noted as a kicker 
— General appearance described — A leader among boys — Learned to read at an 
unusually early age — Unable as a boy to study or acquire knowledge by rote — 
Experience at a Corn- Field school-house — Playing truant — My dog and dear friend — 
Taught by the negroes woodcraft, to ride, and to shoot — Description of my costume 
— Hog-back riding my delight on the way to school — Mrs. Grant's opinion of me and 
her prophecy as to my future~end — Change of schools — Explanation as to the difficulty 
I had in acquiring knowledge at school from books — I could only learn from obser- 
vation or explanation — Mistake in not teaching children to think — A child's idea of God 
"tagging" after her — I seemed never to forget what my father taught me — Fond of 
reading books in advance of the usual taste shown by boys — Account of my horse Jim 
and his pranks 

Chapter II 

Our farm — Making sewing silk — My father's inventions for twisting, and many 
dyes made by him were afterwards adapted by the trade — Difficulty about his boundary 
line — His adventure with a neighbor who shot a valuable dog while chained up in his 
kennel — His silk factory destroyed by an incendiary — Custom of carrying firearms — 
A relic of frontier life — Holding of the county court — -Strange characters — Street 
fights — Morea the name of my father's place — -Description of the house — Speculation 
in the Morus multicauUs plants — It was expected that this country would produce the 
silk fabrics of the world — Recollection of my father's companionship^Its effect — An 
early riser with my dog — How I spent the time every morning before going to school 
— Traps and snares — Shooting stars of 1835 — Effect on the negroes — Longevity of 
some of the negroes — "Corn shucking" described — Comment on the singing of the 
negroes of that period — Now a lost art — The London concert-hall music and the so-called 
negro minstrels, a burlesque — The last of a family and a spinster who had seen better 
days — Struggle to keep up appearances — Description of her "get up" and of a state 
dinner without dessert — "The big gobbler done eat all the dessert up" — Peculiarities 
of some of the negroes— Idea of resisting temptation in not stealing all the opportun- 
ity afforded — Several negro stories — Robbing hen roosts. ..... 

Chapter III 

Visit to my Uncle Henry Tucker's plantation in lower Virginia — Description of a 
private travelling coach — ^The form of wagon first used by the early Irish emigrants, who 



Contents 



settled up in the mountainous country between Pennsylvania and South Carolina, 
and afterwards used to cross the plains to California in 1849 and later — Condition of 
the public roads in Virginia — No accommodation for travellers — Corduroy roads, how 
built — Description of camping out at night in the forest — Coach upset on entering the 
ferry-boat — My life saved by a negro nurse — Saving the horses and getting the coach out 
of the river — Long delay in consequence of accident — Description of the Tucker plan- 
tation, and management — The tobacco crop only taken to market — Mode of transpor- 
tation — The character of the planter was generally elevated by the responsibility of his 
position, and seldom abused — Abolition of slavery considered — How Ephraim broke the 
pitcher — My uncle's neighbors — Col. Paul and Edward Carrington — Chief- Justice John 
Marshall — Aaron Burr's trial for treason — Mention of Blennerhassett — Both lived 
in advance of their views — Their action caused the Louisiana Territory purchase — 
Recollection of John Randolph — His want of respect to my grandmother — Judge St. 
George Tucker — Dr. Thomas Tudor Tucker — Randolph emancipated his negroes and 
divided his property among them — Not allowed to settle in Ohio — Their after-condition 
a sad one — Negroes in the South formerly taught to read and write — The first public 
school was in South Carolina for the negroes and not in New England for the whites, as 
claimed — "Nat" Turner's insurrection in Virginia — The New England writers have 
falsified history by claiming too much for that section of the country. ... 29 

Chapter IV 

Many distinguished persons lived in the vicinity of the University of Virginia — 
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Mrs. Madison, Wm. C. Rives, the Minister to Paris, 
Andrew Stevenson, Minister to London, Edward Coles, Governor of the Northwest 
Territory, Meriwether Lewis, Comm. Matthew F. Maury, K. S. N. — Secretary of the 
Navy, Gilmer, and Secretary of State, Upshur were both killed by the bursting of the 
"peacemaker" on the U. S. war vessel Princeton — Wm. Wirt, the Walkers, Pages, 
Riveses, Carters, Moons, Randolphs, Lewises, and many other noted families lived in 
the neighborhood — Edgar Allan Poe, a student at the University — John R. Thompson, 
the founder and editor of the Southern Literary Messenger — The Blackwood's Magazine 
of the South — Anecdote of the late Duke of Westminster — The professors of the Uni- 
versity were all noted men — Burning of the Riclimond theatre — Great loss of life due 
to the doors opening inward — Mr. George Tucker's description of the fire and his escape 
— A remarkable entertainment given by the new professor of German — Visit to New 
York — Journey made chiefly by stage-coach: and requiring nearly a week — Description 
of the first railroad in Virginia — Steamboat from Aquia Creek to Washington — De- 
scription of the accommodation at that time for making the toilet after travelling all 
night, and before the use of sleeping cars — Chained tooth-brushes for the use of the pub- 
lic — Neglect of the teeth, generally, seventy years ago — The need produced the best 
dentists in the world — The tin basins from the wash-room used for serving soup in the 
dining-room — Visit to Washington City — Description of the town and hotel — The pro- 
prietor and his official dress described — The etiquette observed at the hotel — Hotel 
court-yard described with its many attractions — The want of proper sanitary 
measures caused an epidemic of typhoid fever many years after from the drinking water 
at the National Hotel, which occupied the site of the old building — Sightseeing in 
Washington — The prominent members of Congress and of the Senate at that time 
pointed out — Heard most of them speak on the question of slavery — John Quincy 
Adams then a member of Congress 41 

Chapter V 

Taken to see the original Declaration of Independence — History of its conception, 
after Virginia passed Mason's Bill of Rights — ^ Virginia delegates in Congress, 



Contents 



PAGE 

through Richard Henry Lee, were instructed to urge Congress to a passage of a Declar- 
ation of Independence — Referred to a committee — Jefferson became chairman and 
drafted the instniment — Franklin and John Adams only members of the committee who 
took part in its preparation — Governor of Pennsylvania appointed a new delegation in 
favor of its passage — Bill reported and passed only by the vote of Delaware, secured 
by the vote of Rodney, who was serving in the army and was sent for to give the 
casting vote — A new Congress met in August, 1776, and the Declaration was ordered 
to be engrossed and signed, for fear there might be spies among the members — As Con- 
gress met with closed doors it was not known to the public who were members of Congress 
— No one signed the Declaration before August 20th, and a number who did sign it 
were not members of Congress when it was passed^Rodney did not sign the Declara- 
tion tmtil over two years after he had voted for its passage — During the administra- 
tion of John Quincy Adams the original was dampened to obtain an offset from the 
signatures, to prepare a facsimile for presentation to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the 
only survivor of the signers — This caused in time the signatures to fade out — Dis- 
covered during the Civil War, and the circiunstance was accepted by some as a bad 
omen for the Northern States — Railroad from Washington to Baltimore was the first 
built in the United States and used as a tram- way, for want of engines which were made 
in England and were not finished in time— Interesting episode in connection with 
this road where I was spanked by my father for being too self-assertive — Visit to 
Philadelphia — Interesting recollections — As a child greatly attracted by the Quaker 
women — Visit to the old Arcade in Chestnut Street — The purchase there of a Con- 
tinental note was the nucleus of the "Emmet Collection" of Americana — Recollections 
of my first visit to New York — St. John's Church and St. John's Park — My uncle's resi- 
dence there — Visit to Bond Street, when it had but one house — Return through a 
corn-field above Canal Street — Rev. John Murray Forbes — History of St. Ann's Catho- 
lic Church in 8th Street, facing Lafayette Place — Birth of my eldest son, his christen- 
ing and caudle party — Mrs. August Belmont — My grandfather's city residence corner 
Nassau and Pine streets — My first residence in New York in a boarding-house on 20th 
Street during the winter of 1852 and 1853, and on Fourth Avenue, above 12th Street, 
after May, 1853 — My first visit as a child toScudder's Museum described, what I saw 
there with my negro nurse— History of Barnum's dog-headed boy — St. Paul's Church 
— Its monuments — Sir John Temple, his connection with the family and his history 
•^— Elysian fields at Hoboken. .......... 54 

Chapter VI 

Visit to Rockaway, Long Island — Can only recollect Madame Bonaparte, ex- 
Mayor Philip Hone, and a little girl, afterwards Madame Fowler, a nun in the Order of 
the Sisters of the Sacred Heart — Madame Bonaparte's appearance and dress — Fond of 
giving yotmg children sweetmeats — How I managed to get a double portion — Mr. Hone 
a friend of my father and tmcles — He seemed to take a fancy to me and was fond of 
resting his hand on my head much to my annoyance — His home in Broadway — Enter- 
tained all strangers— Little Miss Fowler was a great-granddaughter of Count Adml. de 
Grasse, of the French Navy, who took part at the surrender of Comwallis — The neighbor- 
hood of Prince Street and Broadway described — First stage line — History of the Lom- 
bardy poplar sent to this country by General Lafayette — The Ravel pantomime troop 
at Niblo's Garden — Park Theatre — Tyrone Power, the Irish actor — Lost in the Presi- 
dent — Old Bowery Theatre— The pit described — The elder Booth — Booth's Theatre, 
23d Street and Sixth Avenue — The improvements made in the city during Tweed's 
administration — Visits to my uncle and family on Third Avenue — Difficulties of 
the Mt. Vernon " Gang " with the boys working in a neighboring ropewalk — Return to 
the University — My tutor and his end — ^Visited New York the following summer and 



Contents 



it was spent with a number of the family at Babylon, Long Island — Entertainment on 
Fire Island — My father imported the first indiarubber-cloth boots from Paris, and a 
daguerreotype apparatus — Description of the first "gum" shoes made in this country 
— Seeking a school for me at the North — Visit to Hartford, Conn., a noted school — I 
detected it was a "htimbug" and my father agreed with me — Finally sent to St. 
Thomas's Hall, Flushing, Long Island, under the Rev. Dr. Francis Hawks — Became 
ill and dissatisfied with the school — Correspondence with my father on the subject, 
which left an indelible impression on me — Some account of my father's life — He was 
cadet at West Point and detailed assistant Professor of Mathematics — Resigned on 
account of bad health — Two years in Europe — On his return studied medicine — 
Began practice in Charleston, S. C. — Appointed Professor in the University of Vir- 
ginia by Jefferson — Obliged to spend the winter of 1841 in Florida — An interesting 
anecdote relating to the Rev. Dr. Anthon and Rev. Dr. Hawks — Dear old Tom Bayard 
of Delaware, the only one of my schoolmates at Hawks's school for whom I retained an 
affectionate regard unbroken through life. ........ 68 



Chapter VII 

My father and mother return from Florida — Much benefited — Stopped in Charles- 
ton, S. C, to see old friends — Decided to return to New York by sea — Obliged to 
take a sailing vessel, as one passenger steamer had recently been burned and the other 
had foundered at sea, with great loss of life — Detained and too late for the regular 
sailing packet, which was never heard of after — Sailed on the brig Catherine — Dis- 
mantled and wrecked off Cape Hatteras — Passengers suffered from privation and ex- 
posure — Over five weeks at sea before rescued — My father remained with his brother 
on Third Avenue — Harlem Railroad^Some description of "the lay of the land" in 
the neighborhood and to 50th Street — Sudden breaking up of Dr. Hawks's school — 
My uncle's family of boys — The Mount Vernon "Gang" not bad boys, but always 
ready for a fight — An account'of one of their engagements — The Rev. Mr. Gage did not 
appreciate the civilities extended to him — Description of the land now covered by the 
Central Park — My aunt's charities and her work as Lady Bountiful among the poor — 
Go duck-shooting and the consequences — Sir Henry Clinton's headquarters at the 
Beekman House, in the neighborhood — Old Cato's house on the Boston Turnpike, the 
headquarters of Clinton's body-guard — Capt. Nathan Hale's capture and execution — • 
History of the transportation of cannon and powder from Ticonderoga to Boston — 
Gen. Knox could only have given the order — Battle of Bunker Hill — -Visited tlie 
McEvers family at Mont Alto — -The Bloomingdale Episcopal Church and St. 
James's, then on Hamilton Square — Sale of this square by the city — Nearly all pur- 
chased by the Jews, who for the first time began to hold real estate in this country — 
Took the place of the fourteenth guest at a dinner given by my uncle — Reference to 
Mr. August Belmont as a young man and to Mr. Adrian Iselin, Sr., who were present — 
My uncle's method of impressing me with the importance of using a dictionary to 
improve my spelling. ............ 



Chapter VIII 

Celebration of the introduction' of Croton water into New York, July 4, 1842 — De- 
scription of the overgrown village of New York at that time — Condition of the streets 
— The numerous street cries, more remarkable in New York than elsewhere — Nearly 
all the traffic of the town carried on in the streets by peddlers — The procession, its 
chief feature being the engines of the Volunteer Fire Department, with their musical 
bands — A man came in a boat through the pipes from Croton and was nearly 



Contents 



drowned — Visit to the old house on the Middle Road, formerly occupied by my 
grandfather — My father's drawing of the parlor and family in 1818 as "An Evening at 
Home" and "Corporation Improvements" — My father decided to settle in Florida — 
Making arrangements to do so at the time of his death^My mother and I return to 
Virginia — Stopped at Norfolk — I saw the Pennsylvania, a 120-gun ship of the U. S. N., 
the largest ship which had then been built — She was thought to be unsafe and too 
large for service — She could now be put inside of the hull of some of the passenger 
ships sailing from the port of New York — My life at the University presented no 
prospects for the future, and I went to New York in 1843 to enter my uncle's counting- 
house as soon as a place could be made for me — Saw a good deal of Mr. Clement C. 
Moore — Began my work but it proved uncongenial from the beginning — What we 
had to do — In an attempt to kill a worrying fly I came to grief and spoiled the letter- 
book — Unfortunately I had already compromised my future business prospects by 
getting up, a short time before, a dog fight, which for a time at least disturbed the 
sleeping business repose of the neighborhood — These were two interesting episodes for 
Broad Street; nothing of the kind had ever happened before or since — The occurrence 
of the fire of August, 1843, terminated my business career — Account of the fire and 
supposed cause — An explosion, by which a man was blown to a great height — A re- 
markable result — Returned to Virginia and entered the University as a student — 
Illness of my grandmother and her final death prevented me from giving the neces- 
sary attention to my studies — Dismissed and treated unjustly by the Faculty — Ex- 
planation for the reader — The system of education at that time a wrong one — Guardian 
appointed for me by the court and to dispose of my father's property — The guardian 
Only looked after his own interest and finally everything was lost by theft or mis- 
management — Moved to New York, hoping to get some employment — My Uncle 
Robert, without consulting me, obtained an appointment for West Point, which I 
declined, as I knew I could not pass the examination — Met Thackeray — My opinion 
of him — Dickens impressed me favorably. ...... . . 

Chapter IX 

Consulted Dr. Dunglison as to the possibility of studying medicine — He advised 
doing so — After hearing the first lecture on medicine I felt satisfied I had found my 
vocation — Dined with the doctor's family every Sunday — Who I met there — Wm. 
B. Wood, an old English actor, Mr. Garesch^, son-in-law of Col. Duponceau of the 
Revolution — Both good talkers, with reminiscences of many distinguished men and 
events — Rev. Henry W. Ducachet, a physician and afterwards became a clergyman — 
His relation with my father — Rev. Dr. G. W. Bethune, the scholar — The elder 
Agassiz just after he came to this country — His experience previous to 1845 — Dr. 
Elisha Kent Kane — His uncle, Robert M. Paterson, a professor in the University of 
Virginia — Knew Kane as a boy — His experience when in charge of the Grinnell ex- 
pedition to the North Pole — Nicholas P. Trist — His anecdotes in connection with the 
Mexican War — Colonel May a remarkable horseman — Some of his feats — An oc- 
casional glimpse of Philadelphia social life — Dr. David H. Tucker — The Dallas family 
— Atty.-Genl. B. H. Brewster — Recollections in relation to the younger men who 
were teachers of medicine in Philadelphia — Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, a fellow student — 
At his graduation dinner given him by his father — Returned the dinner fifty years 
after — The country place of my uncle, Wm. C. Emmet, at Staatsburg, Dutchess Co., 
on the Hudson River — Dr. Hosack's place near Hyde Park, now held by Mr. Fred- 
erick Vanderbilt — Mrs. Maturin Livingston's place adjoining — Her sons and daughters 
— My uncle sold his place in 1855 to the Dinsmore family — Recall two notable events 
in connection with my uncle's hospitality — The marriage of Mr. Robert Emmet, Jr., to 
Miss Catherine James, an entertainment lasting a week; and a visit from Archbishop 



Contents 



Hughes to lay the comer stone of a Catholic Church on the land given by Mr. Emmet 
— The Bishop was a remarkable man — His course in New York during the Know- 
Nothing troubles of 1849 — The members of the Know-Nothing party — What they 
amounted to. ............ , 



Chapter X 

Portrait of Fulton painted by Miss Elizabeth Emmet and under his instruction 
— The only authentic one — Married Mr. Wm. H. LeRoy — Portrait borrowed by Dr. 
Francis of New York and never returned — Delaplaine, publisher of the Repository of 
Prominent Men, committed a fraud — As my grandfather was unwilling to incur the 
expense of having a special portrait painted for this work, which would have been all 
profit to Delaplaine, he offered one of himself painted by Miss Emmet under Fulton's 
direction — Delaplaine consequently omitted the biography of my grandfather — Hav- 
ing obtained the steel plate of Miss Emmet's portrait, used by Colden in his memoirs 
of Fulton, he maliciously issued it as the work of West, notwithstanding he was familiar 
with its history — A criticism on West, showing he could not have painted Fulton's 
portrait — After death of Dr. Francis, Miss Emmet's portrait was sold as having been 
painted by West — The Hudson-Fulton Association used and exhibited during its cele- 
bration a portrait owned by R. Fulton Cutting, claimed to have been painted by 
West — -Proof that it was painted by an tmknown artist from Delaplaine's engraving — 
Fulton painted on Miss Emmet's portrait as seen through the open window, his new 
gunboat Fulton No. i, which was being built, and which no one but he and his work- 
men had ever seen — This Delaplaine had removed from the plate and substituted in 
1817 the blowing up of a vessel in 1806 by Fulton — Proof given to show that the same 
plate was used to print Fulton's portrait for Colden's memoirs, and the issue by 
Delaplaine for the Repository — -The miniature painted by Fulton and copied by him- 
self from Miss Emmet's portrait, are the only authentic portraits of him (see Appendix, 
Note XIV) — Began my connection with Irish affairs in this country during the Re- 
peal movement by Danl. O'Connell — Attended a noted fancy dress ball at the Astor 
Place Opera House in 1 848 — Have not shaved off my mustache since — Macready the 
actor was a friend of the family — The Astor Place Opera House riot — Excited by 
the friends of Edwin Forrest, the actor, and in sympathy with the "Know- 
Nothing" movement — Macready escapes to Boston and returns to England — Met 
Saml. Lover — His wit and songs — Burns's Scotch songs — Moore's Melodies not 
strictly Irish — Was present at the first meeting of the American Medical Association 
inl Philadelphia — I became a graduate in Medicine — Received the appointment of 
Surgeon to an expedition fitted out to build for Meiggs the first railroad in Chili 
— Dr. Ruschenberger, Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy — I declined the position— Reasons 
for doing so. 121 



Chapter XI 

Dr. Macnevin — Opening of the Emigrant Refuge Hospital on Ward's Island in 
1850, after the Irish famine — -Appointed a Resident Physician — My first day's ex- 
perience — Soon contracted typhus or ship-fever — Was moved to the city to save my 
life — My position a very responsible and exacting one — Suffered within a year from 
a second attack of fever, and my recovery in doubt — Met at a public dinner John 
Mitchell, Meagher, O'Gorman, and other Irish patriots who had been liberated, or es- 
caped from Van Dieman's Land — Account of the Irish famine and suffering in con- 
sequence — The Irish emigrant on shipboard — A chapter in Irish history with which 
every one should >e familiar — Religious bigotry roused in England for political pur- 



Contents 



PAGE 



poses — Present at the first appearance of Jenny Lind in this country — Castle Garden 
described, then a noted place of amusement — My services as a Resident Physician to 
the Emigrant Refuge Hospital — Building of the Panama Railroad with a frightful 
mortality — Description of a ball given by the physicians of Ward's Island to the lady 
school-teachers of Randall's Island — The punch, "a little thing of my own," a great 
success — Built "a sailboat, which was also a success — Appointed a Visiting Physician 
and began practice in the city — Gulian C. Verplanck, the Shakespearian scholar, one 
of the Commissioners of Immigration 135 



Chapter XII 

Present at a fancy ball given in 1852 by Mrs. Coventry Waddell; Mr. James W. 
Gerard, appointed the first Police Commissioner, appeared in the imiform of the 
metropolitan police of London — The "watchmen" objected to wearing a livery, and 
received the support of a number of people who considered it as being derogatory to an 
American citizen — Leased a house in Fourth Avenue above 12th Street — The house soon 
became a favorite resort for young people — Mr. Peter Marie was a constant visitor 
— Nearly lost my life from making a visit to the Hospital during a blizzard— A graphic 
account of the difficulties — Suffered from an attack of inflammatory rheumatism — 
Visit to Bermuda to recuperate — My experience there — My sister at a military ball — 
How she obtained her trophies — The "Bridge" House built by my great-grandfather 
— Visit to the coral reefs and what I saw through a plate glass in the bottom of the 
boat — Returned home in the brig Trinidad — -A tedious voyage with many discomforts — 
Received on board an account of the Norwalk drawbridge accident, with a great loss 
of life — Shortly after my return to New York I took my mother to the water-cure 
establishment at Florence, Mass., and there met my future wife — The day for my 
marriage announced — Difficulties in arriving on time — My outfit described and con- 
sidered to have been "quite the thing" — Arrived in time and married — Visited Mobile 
and New Orleans — Made many friends — Voyage up the Mississippi River and our 
fellow passengers described — What I incidentally saw and heard — The Mississippi River 
and details in relation to its course and navigation — The experience of two women who 
detailed their misfortunes — Reached home — -The reception of my wife by the family. 148 



Chapter XIII 

Began again my service in 1854 as Visiting Physician to the Emigrant Hospital 
— Took charge of the cholera wards in addition to my regular service — The mortality 
was very great as the cases were sent from the city in the last stages of the disease — 
Many priests and nurses died from overwork and from neglect of themselves — On two 
occasions I found on making my visit that all the patients and nurses had died since 
the day before, and yet no one connected with the hospital died who received treat- 
ment for the early symptoms, and but one physician lost his life, and he through fear 
of the disease — A political change in the politics of the State deprived me of my posi- 
tion in the hospital — I worked hard and succeeded in a short time in bmlding up a 
good practice — My wife became interested in charitable work with my aunt, Mrs. 
LeRoy, in establishing the House of Industry and the Nursery and Child's Hospital 
— Townsend, "the Sarsaparilla Man," exhibited his new house for charity — Descrip- 
tion of the house and entertainment — -Tooth-brush, with a comb and hair-brush chained 
to each basin in the "wash-room" — Mrs. DuBois was the originator of the Nursery 
and Child's Hospital as well as of the annual Charity Ball, over fifty years ago — Visit 
from Dr. J. Marion Sims — How it happened I became connected with the Woman's 
Hospital Association, and afterwards became Assistant Surgeon — Spent the summer at 



Contents 



Tucker's Island near New Rochelle where we made some warm friends — ^Relating to 
the birth of President Roosevelt — Rented a house in 1857 near New Rochelle — Pur- 
chased a house in Madison Avenue — Death of my mother — My sister married Mr. 
John N. A. Griswold — Marriage delayed on account of my mother's illness — A cruise 
with Mr. Robert Edgar on his yacht — My uncle, Mr. T. A. Emmet, of the party — Fond 
of playing practical jokes, from which I had suffered — An interesting story of how I 
gained for my uncle the spiritual aid of a clergyman in New London — But he never 
related his " experience "^During a visit to Newport in the summer of 1861 I had oc- 
casion to cross to Narragansett Pier — Charmed with the climate and bathing — Passed 
many summers there — Changes which have taken place — The bass fishing— I caught 
the largest fish ever taken on the coast with a rod — The mosquitoes have long been 
famous in certain portions — Cite an instance of death caused by them. 



Chapter XIV 

Arranged to spend my first summer at Narragansett Pier — Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, 
St., attempted to do the same — His experience — A tendency shown by those living on the 
seashore to disregard their word and to be unreliable — I had a house on the shore for 
seventeen years — Kept open house for the young people — Fancy balls and charades were 
always unusually good at the Pier — Miss Jane Stuart, of Newport, and a daughter of 
Gilbert Stuart, the artist, aided me in getting up a costume for one of the most noted 
of the balls given at the Massasoit House — I appeared as the " Unprotected Female," 
and I was considered a success — Reference to Mr. Allan McLane — "Aunt Didy," Mrs. 
Emmet's sister, who kept house for us — The method by which she was induced to have 
peach ice-cream of tener — Dance of " all hands rovmd ' ' by the young people and strength- 
ened by the continued singing of "Old Dog Tray, ever faithful" — The point yielded 
through fear of being fitted for a lunatic asylum — Beginning of the Civil War — Doctrine 
of State Rights, Secession and Slavery, considered — The origin of "State Rights" — 
Virginia having withdrawn from the Union I considered she had a claim to my services — 
Went South as soon as Mr. Lincoln called out the troops, April 19, 1861 — Difficulties on 
the way — Arrested in Lynchburg — Finally reached Montgomery, Alabama — Advised 
y Mr. Davis and other members of the Confederate Government to return to my family 
in New York — Delays and difficulties on my return — The Mammoth Cave in Kentucky 
— What I saw there — Finally reached home — Began again the practice of my profession 
— Why I was never drafted for the army — By advice I sent a substitute — The result — 
The treatment received as a Democrat — The draft — How it was conducted — Everything 
done to exasperate the Irish people — They were forced to the draft riot — Action taken 
by Archbishop Hughes, who had just returned from a secret mission for the Government 
to Europe — What he accomplished — On the command of the Archbishop, and his pledge 
obtained from the Government, the Irish people remained indoors after the second day — 
The city became filled at once with thieves and disreputable people from every part of 
the country, and every effort was made to burn the city — My position an anxious one with 
my family and hospital filled with patients, for whom I found it difficult to provide 
food — My difficulties in voting for Gen. McClellan at the Presidential election — 
Through the aid of a wife of one of the officials in Washington I obtained not only pro- 
tection but much assistance in being able to help many of the Confederate prisoners — 
Fort Delaware not a model prison — And but few of the others were any better — The 
Government was robbed — Condition at Andersonville — Knew Wirz — His death was a 
political murder — Dr. Sims went abroad to practise — The managers of the hospital con- 
templated closing it in consequence — I was finally allowed to continue my work on "-pro- 
bation," notwithstanding I had done most of the work for several years and had full 
charge for eighteen months, during Dr. Sims's absence. . . . . . .174 



Contents 



Chapter XV 

Several anecdotes showing the eccentricities of some of the members of the Con- 
sulting Board of the Woman's Hospital — A novel objection to the use of hoop-skirts 
— Celebrated black pills — Their efficacy explained on the theory of modem medicine — 
An old negro's objection to homoeopathy — I wrote a eulogy on John C. Calhoun, 
as dictated — A new use for Spaulding's glue — Mrs. T. C. Doremus — Her work at 
the Hospital was never appreciated — Mrs. John Jacob Astor wished to build an addi- 
tion to the Woman's Hospital, for the treatment of cancer — The cause of Dr. Sims's 
resignation — Mrs. Astor and her two sisters, Mrs. Gen. Cullum and Mrs. Judge Pea- 
body, founded the Cancer Hospital, now called the Memorial Hospital — I was the first 
person consulted as to their plans, and urged by them to take charge of it — My reasons 
for not doing so — Their wishes were not carried out by the erection of the Memorial 
Hospital — Dear old Margaret Brennan, the first nurse of the Woman's Hospital — ^The 
women of the world do not know the extent to which they are indebted to this good 
woman— She is most worthy of a lasting monument — Mischief-makers between Dr. 
Sims and myself — Before his death he was fully satisfied that he had been misled — 
Unable to see him before his death — I had the honor and satisfaction of being se- 
lected to deliver his eulogium before the New York Academy of Medicine, Jan. 3, 1884 — 
Annoyed for years by the ungenerous interference with my work, as Surgeon-in-Chief 
to the Woman's Hospital — The Lady Managers were influenced by the views of cer- 
tain physicians who were not directly connected with the institution — Delay in getting 
the appointment of my assistants confirmed — Made the acquaintance of Dr. Josiah 
Nott, formerly of Mobile — Mrs. Owz6 and Mrs. La Vert, two remarkable women 
formerly of Mobile — Mrs. Owzd's death in the burning of the Windsor Hotel fire — 
Trouble in getting the appointment of Drs. Nott, Clymer, and Lent confirmed as 
my assistants — -The printing of the Report and By-laws by the Lady Managers not a 
success, an amusing mistake — Placed at the head of the Woman's Hospital at the age 
of 33 — Made a Manager of the New York Institute for the Blind — Much in relation to 
myself I find difficult to place in the table of contents — Began to teach — My clinical 
lectures were attended by physicians from all parts of the world — I applied the laws of 
mechanics to plastic surgery 190 



Chapter XVI 

The most important public service, from a professional standpoint, ever rendered 
by me has now been forgotten — I was instrumental fifty years ago in improving the 
physical development of the young women of that generation and to the present time 
— I compared their condition to that of a well-cultivated celery stalk, a condition ob- 
tained by the exclusion of sunlight in its needed action on the skin and one of disease, 
by making the blood "watery" — Male patients were never attractive to me — Very 
successful with women and children — Difficulties in my private hospital — An interest- 
ing case cited — The prevalence of hysteria produced a condition worse than that in 
a lunatic asylum — ^An early contribution to surgery was to teach the necessity of clean- 
liness — My success in plastic surgery applied to the curing of vesico-vaginal fistula 
and in afterwards pointing out the cause — One of the most loathsome of injuries, and one 
then of frequent occurrence, is now seldom met with even in the simplest form — 
Introduced the scissors instead of the knife into surgery — History of the destruction 
of the Government archives, moved from Washington on the approach of the English 
during the War of 1812 — Destroyed to make room for an army bakery during the Civil 
War — History of the destruction at Halifax, Nova Scotia — Of the papers of Major John 
Andr6, who was Adjutant-General of the English Army — Also the loss of Aaron Burr's 
papers — A great loss to the world, as Burr was never understood and unjustly treated 



Contents 



PAGE 

— Persecuted by Hamilton who forced the duel on him — Francis L. Hoffman, a friend 
of many years — Meeting for the first time Theo. Bailey Myers — Our close intimacy — 
Our historical collections are to remain in close relation and to occupy adjoining al- 
coves in the Consolidated Library, New York — Some notice of an old friend, David 
McN. Stauffer — Our relations of years broken up by his marriage — Mj^ advice to his 
wife — His work on the early engravers of this countrj'. ...... 207 



Chapter XVII 

While passing St. Stephen's Church during a Mission, I was attracted by curiosit>' 
to enter — The most important step in my life — Detailed account and my reason for 
becoming a Catholic — Had married a Catholic — But was perfectly indifferent and had 
not been influenced — Before marriage I had decided that if there existed any authority 
for Christianity it could only rest with the Catholic Church — But its teachings did not 
appeal to me as I was not willing to accept things on faith which I could not understand 
— Sermon by Rev. Fr. W. H. Gross on the mysteries of the Church, and how they were 
to be accepted — For the first time I understood the subject and my duty — -I found it the 
duty of everj' one to investigate and to ask for grace in the proper spirit — I returned to the 
church with mj' wife and was received into the Catholic Church in an hour as I did not 
need any instructions — This occurrence took place over forty years ago and to this day 
I have never had the slightest doubt in my mind or ceased to return thanks for the bless- 
ings conferred on me — ^Wrote a surgical work in 1 868 — For which I was made a member 
of the Berlin Obstetrical Society, the first professional honor I ever received abroad — 
Meeting of the American Gjiiascological Society in Philadelphia, 1878, when I pointed 
out the cause of the frightful injury of vesico-\-aginal fistula, and how it was to be reme- 
died — Some reflections given on the present political situation and changes which have 
taken place within my experience — Overworked and was obliged to go abroad for 
seven months' rest — Accompanied by my friends, Mr. Bailey Mj'ers and Gen. Cullum 
— How Mr. Myers was misled by a young woman — He possessed in common with 
Pickwick a want of the bump of locality and got into the wrong room — Sight-seeing 
in Ireland — Crossed to Glasgow — ^Went up the Caledonian Canal — Visited Fort George, 
Inverness, where my grandfather was imprisoned — Poverty of the Catholics at Oben, 
Scotland. . ............. 



Chapter XVIII 

Our route from Edinburgh to London— Poole, the London tailor — The seat of the 
trousers he furnished his patrons at that time presented a remarkable feature — 
A dinner in Paris, given us by some of the descendants of Lafayette, Rocham- 
beau, and other French officers who served in our Revolution — Something about the 
St. Bartholomew massacre, not in accord with the accepted historj^ — -My experience 
on the spire of the Strasburg Cathedral — A prediction made in case of accident on 
the Rigi Railroad — An interesting incident at Interlaken, from Geneva to Vienna — 
Met a Russian official, a man of great intelligence, then on his way to Siberia by 
order of his government — Reported the coming of an American general with his staff, 
who were to enter Russia by the Volga — Gen. Cullum sick at Budapest — Changed route 
and entered Russia from Poland — Received ever^' courtesy on the frontier — We were 
expected — Treatment of an Englishman in contrast to our reception — Arrived at St. 
Petersburg — Taken by a police agent to a marriage reception in high life — Shown 
every day objects of interest to impress us with the wealth, strength, and growing im- 
portance of Russia — Saw a review of 80,000 troops from the Caspian, they had built a 
railroad from the starting-point, and all of which was taken up oh the return — 



Contents 



PAGE 

Changed my opinion of the Russian soldier — Russia's management of her army — 
Supported at a less cost than any other country — Russian- Japanese war — Cause of 
Russia's failure — Condition of the Trans-Siberian Railroad — The Czar seemed a 
kindly man — Was misled by foreign criticism as to the supposed needs of his Empire 
— Russia had then the only government fitted for her people — -We are conceited in 
believing our civilization should be accepted by the world as the standard — Home Rule 
has existed in Russia for over one hundred and fifty years — No poorhouses in Russia — 
Every family is supposed to have a farm, which is kept for centuries as the head- 
quarters for those who fail in obtaining a living elsewhere — The opportunity is there 
given by their labor to make a fresh start — Trouble with the Jews did not seem to be 
on account of their religion, but they will not live in the coimtry, or cultivate the 
land, but by usury get possession of the land of others, and thus give the police a 
great deal of trouble — My opinion of the Russian people from what I saw of their 
habits and interests — Their views as to education — My own views as to the benefit of 
the public schools as conducted in our own country — Some deductions bearing on the 
existence of unrest among our people at large — Professions all overcrowded by those 
who are unfitted for professional life and could only succeed at a trade — It is the 
amount of brains God has given a man and his progenitors which determines his 
success in life and education alone cannot gain it — Both mechanical and professional 
efficiency are inherited — Left Russia for Finland — Met an old Russian Admiral — ■ 
Remarkable man — Did not accept my fish story — Correspondence with Admiral 
Tryon, of the Camperdown — His opinion of his grandfather, Gov. Tryon, of the Ameri- 
can Revolution. ............. 239 

Chapter XIX 

Return from Russia — Thankful to Dr. Van Buren for the experience — Interesting 
visit from the late Charles O'Conor, then at the head of the New York bar— His 
account of the action of the Orangemen in New York on July 12, 1824 — They marched 
to Greenwich Village to rouse the Catholics — They were successful in receiving a 
thrashing — Many Irishmen were arrested and imprisoned until the trial two months 
after — Indignation of Thos. Addis Emmet, on learning the circumstances — He gave up 
his other business and defended the prisoners— All were acquitted — Mr. O'Conor gave 
the history of a silver pitcher from which he was then being served — He was requested 
after the trial to get up this testimonial for Mr. Emmet — Mr. O'Conor gave a very 
humorous account of the experience a clergyman had with his cook, on his inquiry relat- 
ing to "The bell, book, and candlestick" — As an honest man, he made a public 
apology, in acknowledgment that he deserved what he received — Mr. O'Conor stated 
that the degree of bigotry and prejudice in New York against the Irish Catholics 
was not equalled elsewhere — My grandfather was so outspoken on the existing con- 
dition that it attracted the interest of every one, and was the beginning of more tolerance 
among all classes — On my return from Russia I devoted myself with greater zeal to 
teaching and writing on the subjects which I was rapidly developing — Began to write 
my work on The Principles and Practice of Gynaecology — Found many difficulties to 
overcome — The work done chiefly late at night— Fun and frolic when I had time with 
the children in the morning — My wife's efforts to get me to bed at an early hour — 
When completed the work was dedicated to the memory of my father — Publication 
declined through the advice of a supposed friend — Member of the Irish Relief, or 
Mansion House Committee of the United States— Henry C. Lea, of Philadelphia, 
offered to publish anything I wrote and became the publisher — Bad effects of tobacco 
—Difficulty in breaking the habit— -Received the degree of LL.D.— Condition of 
Ireland considered — My services given at an early period of my life to the work of 
aiding Ireland 255 



Contents 



Chapter XX 

Visit to the west coast of Ireland — I was under constant supervision of the police 
— Visited Dr. Madden in Dublin — Obtained from him much information in relation to 
the family and places of interest in connection— Employed Sir Bernard Burke to make 
a search among the records of Ireland and England in relation to the family — This ma- 
terial was utilized in writing The Emmet Family, which was published subsequently — 
Visited the different houses and places connected with the family history pointed out by 
Dr. Madden, and had them photographed — Dr. Madden presented to me the original 
death-mask taken by Petrie of Robert Emmet — Its subsequent history — While at work 
with Dr. Madden and the photographer, I was notified to leave Dublin — The first Land 
Act was presented by Mr. Fortescue and not by Gladstone, as generally thought — Mr. 
Gladstone, however, was able to make use of it — This was the most important measure 
ever passed by England in relation to Ireland — It accomplished but little of itself, but 
it was a justification of Ireland and rendered possible any steps in the future — To do 
justice to Ireland I made a great effort to advance the progress on my book Ireland 
under English Rule that it might serve the cause of Home Rule — Certain defects of 
character in the Irish people considered — What has been accomplished by means of 
the United Irish League and revival of the Irish language — The Fenian movement ac- 
complished more than all the others for the advancement of the Irish cause — The opinion 
of John Boyle O'Reilly as to physical force — The use of dynamite considered — -The 
execution of a Coercion Act in Ireland was a degradation for the Irish people — If an 
attempt is ever made to enforce another Coercion Act in Ireland, dynamite will be freely 
used in their defence — The evicted tenants — Visited the Continent, became ill — Broke 
my leg at Glengariff , Ireland — Obliged to return home — Delay resulted in shortening 
and permanent lameness — Police in Ireland — A constant cause of disorder — The 
treatment of my children by them — My youngest son meets Mr. Gladstone — An inter- 
esting incident in connection — Mr. Parnell and my impression of him — Joseph Biggar 
a remarkable man — The Irish people should never forget the services of these two men. 



Chapter XXI 

Irish convention held in New York, May 7, 1891 — Displacement of Mr. Parnell 
by the National party — The Irish National Federation of America organized by the 
convention — I was elected president, Mr. Joseph P. Ryan finally secretary, as Mr. James 
Coleman could not serve — Major John Byrne, president of the Board of Trustees, and 
Mr. Eugene Kelly, treasurer — Dr. Wm. B. Wallace, an efficient member of the Board of 
Trustees and a good friend — His life and professional advancement sacrificed for the 
Irish cause — Went abroad — While at Glengariff communicated with Messrs. Dillon 
and O'Brien who were being released from imprisonment — My advice followed, and 
was the means of turning Irish affairs into another channel — Lord Aberdeen given 
a large public dinner by the Federation — Private dinner by myself to Lord and Lady 
Aberdeen — Mass meeting of the Federation at Cooper Union, March 28, 1892 — Turbu- 
lent meeting; order restored by three hundred policemen, followed by a successful meet- 
ing — Archbishop Corrigan's course a praiseworthy one — Attended a meeting at 
Scranton, Pa. — Met Mr. Powderly who presided — Mass meeting held March 26, 1893, 
at the Academy of Music, in Irving Place — An eloquent address on Irish affairs by 
Mr. Bourke Cochran — Successful in raising funds — Just before the general election in 
Great Britain received a cablegram from Mr. Dillon asking assistance — In a few hours 
cabled a credit for fifty thousand dollars, which paid all the election expenses for the 
Irish party and returned Mr. Gladstone to power by the seventy-two Irish members 
elected — An important incident in the unwritten history relating to modem Irish poli- 
tics — Mr. Kelly's most generous contribution on this occasion, with that of Major Byrne 



Contents 



— Organization soon weakened and finally destroyed by dissension abroad — Public letter 
to Lord Salisbury— Went abroad with the hope of promoting harmony among the leaders 
— Not successful — Letter to Mr. Justin McCarthy and to other members of the party 
— All subscriptions to the Federation stopped — Letter to the New York Sun in relation 
to the subscription sent to the Irish party by Mr. Gladstone and Lord Tweedmouth — 
Meeting held at the Lyceum, Madison Avenue, Oct. 17, 1894 — Addressed by Mr. 
Edw. Blake, M.P. — Had to be protected by the police — An explosive mixture set off in 
one of the stage boxes, but without doing any damage — The meeting yielded a good 
contribution. ............. 



Chapter XXII 

Reference to the Dublin Phoenix Park murder, and to Tynan — Action taken 
by the London Times — The New York Herald printed three days before the general 
election in Great Britain an article the London Times had prepared to defeat the Irish 
National members of Parliament — History of the trick — Action of the Federation in 
exposing it — Death of Mr. Eugene Kelly, treasurer of the Federation— He was a 
great loss to the Irish cause — Mr. John D. Crimmins elected treasurer — Difficulties in 
raising funds from dissension abroad and mistrust at home — Total amount remitted by 
Mr. Kelly to the national treasurer in Ireland — I became broken down from overwork 
and worry — Sent to Bermuda — Became ill there — Prepared for. death — Several hundred 
Irish Catholic servant girls spent the night in praying for my recovery — God granted 
their unselfish and charitable prayers — Moved to the steamer from the hotel by an army 
ambulance corps and escorted by a corporal's guard of the British Army — Kindness 
of the Governor of Bermuda — Several months before convalescence — Decided to close 
my private hospital — Some of the distinctive features of my library described — Sold 
my library and collection of autographs and engravings — Mr. Kennedy, the purchaser, 
presented the collection to the Lenox Library — Irish National Federation no longer in 
active operation — Mr. Ryan's sacrifice — Peter Macdonnell and John Crane — Their 
loyalty to the Irish cause — Delivered a lecture at Cooper Union, Feb. i, 1897, to the 
New York Branch of the Federation, on "England's Destruction of Ireland's Manufac- 
tories, Commerce, and Population" — Lease expired and could not be renewed — Moved 
the office of the Federation — Trustees all in favor of closing — Reasons for not acqui- 
escing — Mr. J. B. Fitzpatrick true to the last — ^Wrote The Emmet Family — Mr. Abram 
S. Hewitt — His recollection of the death and funeral of Thomas Addis Emmet, my 
grandfather. 298 



Chapter XXIII 

Received the Laetare Medal — Account of the ceremony — Death of Mr. Ryan in 
1900 — ^Never was any individual better fitted for his position — His death occurred 
when his work was finished — Mr. John Redmond became the head of the Irish 
National party — Resigned my position as Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital— Some 
account of my service — Also of my difficulties — The intrigue and "wire-pulling" were 
unequalled elsewhere — An interesting interview with a president of the Board of 
Managers — Some of the managers fully appreciated my work and had confidence in 
my judgment — What occurred at the election of two of the Visiting Surgeons — Was 
successful in obtaining aid from the State Legislature for the hospital at a most critical 
period — I also obtained permission from the Board of Aldermen to sell the site of the 
hospital at 49th St. and Lexington Avenue, after the Committee of the Board of 
Managers had failed — Some reference to Mr. Richard Croker, and the working of Tam- 
many — On my resignation as Visiting Surgeon, I requested from the Board of Man- 



Contents 



agers the position of Emeritus Stirgeon, and that my son, who had been my assistant 
for many years, should be appointed to fill ray position— I stated as my reason that 
during so busy a life there was much I was never able to investigate, and that I wished 
to devote the remainder of my life to original work in the hospital — My requests were 
totally disregarded, after a continuous and gratuitous service to the Woman's Hospital 
of over 45 years. ••••••...... 



PAGE 



313 



Chapter XXIV 

My gratuitous service of over fifty years in different hospitals — My private 
hospital — Physicians should have more authority in the management of hospitals — 
Present system of being managed by successful business men, where their wealth seems 
the chief recommendation, has nothing to recommend it — The young physicians do not 
receive the consideration due them as members of a learned profession — Their food 
as a rule is the poorest, while with their work and responsibility they need the best— 
Their sleeping accommodations are generally inadequate and always crowded — They 
are compelled to live in the same room in which they sleep — Every physician in a hos- 
pitaL should be paid something — His services are valued less than that of a servant girl 
— The public and not the physician receives the benefit of the experience gained by the 
extra service in a hospital — The law does not require anything more after a physician 
has received his diploma — The additional knowledge is an undoubted advantage, but 
to gain it he is taxed in the loss of time and for his current expenses — The appointment 
of the senior physicians and surgeons should not go by favor as at present, but by a 
competitive examination, as is the custom in all public service but the judiciary, and 
the term of service should be limited by age — The senior physician should also be paid 
by the public, as the judge on the bench — There is no more reason that the service of 
one should be a gratuitous one, than that of the other! — By a competitive examina- 
tion and proper compensation the public would be better served than at present — 
Lady managers are not, as a rule, fitted to judge as to the qualification of a physician for 
hospital appointments — An interesting illustration given — Both public and private 
hospitals need more public supervision than is given them at present — Some views 
expressed as to the management of Catholic hospitals — ^As a rule, the charitable in- 
stitutions of the Jews are better managed than those under the care of either Protes- 
tants or Catholics — As to the best care of the destitute — The members of a branch of 
the Irish Federation in New York organized the first branch in America of the United 
Irish League, on Mr. Redmond's appointment as leader — Mr. Redmond has proved a 
most successful leader of the Irish Party. ........ 330 



Chapter XXV 

Spent the summer of 1903 abroad — Made an effort to locate the burial place of 
Robert Emmet — Extended excavations made in the neighborhood of the supposed site 
of the Emmet family vault in the churchyard of St. Peter's, Dublin — Reasons given 
for believing that the remains of Robert Emmet were eventually placed in the family 
vault and that this vault was afterwards destroyed, and with all the other vaults covered 
in[by a thick layer of concrete, and over all several feet of earth were placed — Visited 
Dublin in 1880 — Then Dr. Madden was of the opinion the burial had taken place in the 
Protestant parish church at Glasneven — On making an excavation it was proved that 
no one had been buried there — The uninscribed grave in St. Michan's churchyard, which 
for so many years had been supposed to have been Robert Emmet's grave, was also 
opened and it was proved the remains found there had no connection with him — State- 
ment given as to who made these investigations — A mural tablet was placed in the 



Contents 



transept of St. Peter's Church, where, on removing the floor, the headstone was found 
to mark the supposed grave of Christopher Temple Emmet — Ireland under English 
Rule, etc., was issued in New York, during September, 1903 — Feb. 14, 1904, we cele- 
brated our golden wedding, and received in church a special papal blessing — One of the 
first wedding presents to arrive was the likeness of the Holy Father, on which he had 
written an expression of his good wishes, and his special blessing for both of us, and 
signed "Pius X, Pope" — Account of the reception held to receive our friends — In the 
evening gave a dinner of sixty covers to all of the Emmet family able to attend — This 
was likely the last gathering of the clan, and it was a memorable occasion — I left the 
following day for Palm Beach, Florida — Views relating to the grip — Believe every case 
should be isolated and treated as any other contagious disease — An old negro's views 
in relation to ironclad vessels 343 

Chapter XXVI 

The condition of my wife did not improve at Palm Beach, nor did I do better — 
We both suffered from an attack of the grip on our return home, and were confined 
for over a month — One morning I read to her from the newspaper an account of a dinner 
given the night before to Dr. Osier, to which I had not been invited, nor did I know it 
was to be given — I cited the incident to my wife as a proof of how completely I was 
"out of the swim," and forgotten — Next morning I was notified by a committee of one 
that a dinner was to be given to me on my seventy-seventh birthday, just a week off — 
It seemed something impossible that I could be present at a dinner in a week — But 
my wife appreciated the honor more than I did at the time, and that I had given up for 
the want of some regular occupation — With her interest and assistance I made an 
effort, got to work at once preparing an address — Each day of effort gave me a new 
lease of life — In a week I attended the dinner, which proved one of the chief events of 
my life — Without the new interest this dinner gave me in life, I would, in a few 
months, have ceased to exist from pure inanition, as I thought my life's work was 
done, and I was simply waiting for the end — Went to dinner and never enjoyed one 
more, in the meeting of so many old friends and many new ones, whom I had thought 
were indifferent, while I was in practice, to me and my work — Began the making of a 
scrap-book by collecting everything relating to the dinner, and selected over one hun- 
dred quotations from Shakespeare — My wife took the greatest interest in my work 
and particularly in the quotations, as she knew nearly every one present, and was 
greatly amused at the application of the quotations — I was urged to publish the 
book and issue a copy as a souvenir for every one who was present — My wife's 
sudden death 356 



Chapter XXVII 

spent the winter of 1905-06 at Palm Beach — Had to make a great effort to keep 
myself steadily employed — Made much progress in the study of Irish — Slipped while 
getting out of a bath tub and was injured — Wrote a paper on the "Battle of Harlem," 
showing it was not fought in the neighborhood of Columbia College — At Narra- 
gansett Pier during the summer of 1906 — Had another fall over a trunk — May possibly 
bejgetting used to it, as the fall did not cost me my life — Dec. 29, 1906, was invested 
by. His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop Farley, with the insignia of a Knight Com- 
mander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, from His Holiness, Pius X — An ac- 
count of the proceedings — Copies of letters written for the public press relating to Irish 
affairs — Passed the summer with my son and family in the Scotch Highlands — The 
altitude above the sea was too great for the condition of my heart — On my return wrote 



Contents 



an open letter for the public, showing the great change for the better which had 
taken place in England during the past generation towards the Irish people, and the 
needs of that country — The Methodist Bishop, who when asked, on entering the House 
of Commons, whom he served, answered, "The Lord Jehovah," was mistaken by the 
official at the door to be the valet of some Scotch Lord bearing that title — In June, 
1908, published an important letter on the Irish situation of affairs — With some home 
truths for the Irish people themselves — An original plan for gaining Home Rule for 
Ireland. 376 



Chapter XXVIII 

Issued the second edition of Ireland under English Rule, etc., after giving a year to its 
revision and nearly the same length of time getting it through the press — Derived 
an important advantage in finally obtaining a good index — While writing the first 
edition, some fifteen years ago, I placed on record that in the near future a conflict 
would arise on some purely English measure, between the House of Commons and 
the House of Lords — The action of the House of Lords in throwing out the Budget 
confirms the prediction — The House of Lords has been but consistent as it has vetoed 
every bill passed by the House of Commons for the relief of Ireland during the past 
hundred years — But it did not become a "personal" matter until the interest of Eng- 
land was interfered with — Comment upon the changes of the past seventy-five years in 
this country, from a life of simple tastes to one of extravagance and waste — The 
accumulation of gold in the past sixty years — Gold is the only permanent standard of 
value — We have had an inflation which was not one based on gold, but on something 
yet to be earned by the gradual development of the covmtry — Inflation has encouraged 
a taste for speculation and extravagant living, based simply on credit — The cost of the 
Civil War was met by one third specie and two thirds credit — In a state of prosperity 
the natural resources of the coimtry are supposed to develop at the rate of ten millions 
of dollars a day, and the wealth of the country as a whole is supposed to increase at 
that rate, and long since the indebtedness of the war would have been absorbed if we 
had not developed the most extravagant government and people on the face of the 
earth — The expenses of living have naturally increased, stimulated by the existence 
of a tariff which enriches comparatively a few individuals under the claim of pros- 
perity, while the great majority of the people are becoming impoverished — "Cheap 
money " is never a sign of prosperity — Money is as much of a product as wheat or any 
other commodity, and has its market price — A high rate of interest on a gold loan 
represents prosperity and permanent wealth — Coming conflict between labor and 
capital — Packing the Supreme Court, to give a factitious value to paper money issued 
by the United States, together with our tariff, are responsible for the extravagance now 
existing in every station of life — No country can prosper and the people pay over 
twenty-five per cent, of income as an indirect tax — We are paying more than double 
that proportion — Cold storage; under the present system is a menace to both the purse 
and health of the people — The only remedy for the high price of living is to place all 
articles of food on the free list, to be imported free of duty or tax — Subject the trusts 
to the issue and record of a special permit tax and limit purchasing power of material 
for storage. ' 394 



Chapter XXIX 

Maynooth College — Letter from the Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, as to the status of the 
young men educated there for the priesthood — An important letter — The Act of Union 
must be repealed before Home Rule could be attained for Ireland — From old age my 



Contents 



life is now being narrowed down to a very limited field of usefulness — An account by 
T. P. O'Connor, M. P., describing a visit to me and my surroundings, on March i6, 
1907 — He repeated his visit the day before Christmas, 1909, on his way to the steamer, 
accompanied by Michael J. Ryan, the National President of the United Irish League 
of America and the National Treasurer, Mr. Fitzpatrick of Boston — All old friends, 
and the visit was well timed as I was bringing my "Incidents " to a close at the end of 
the year 1909 — My Christmas Day was made all the brighter by the good news they 
brought me as to Irish affairs — On Christmas I received through the mail a Christmas 
card, as I had done for over twenty years, from a waif I had assisted as many years 
before — The reception of that card was the last incident connecting me with my pro- 
fessional work — No one can expect, after receiving in this world every evidence of 
prosperity, to be equally as fortunate in the next — On closing my work I have com- 
pared my remaining existence to a bubble, and with its collapse will end the story of 
my life. .............. 407 

Appendix 417 

Index 469 



Illustrations 



PAGE 

Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D Frontispiece 

From a photograph, 1909 

Dr. Robert Emmet, State Physician, Dublin . . . . i -' 

From a miniature 

Mrs. John Patten Emmet [Mary Byrd Farley Tucker] . . . 8 ■^ 

Painted by Ford, 1833 

Residence of Prof. Emmet, near the University of Virginia . 18 

From a pen-drawing made from memory in 1898 by Dr. T. A. Emmet 

Prof. John Patten Emmet, M.D. ....... 20 

■^ti Painted by Ford, 1834 

Mrs. Thomas A. Emmet [Jane Patten Emmet] . . . . 64 • 

Painted in 1844 by her daughter Mrs. William H. LeRoy 

Dr. William J. Macneven 66 "^ 

Corporation Improvements . 94 ^ 

Drawn by Dr. J. P. Emmet in 1818 

An Evening at Home . 96 " 

Drawn by Dr. J. P. Emmet in 1818I 

Mrs. John H. Tucker [Eliza J. Tucker] 102 ' 

Painted by Ford, 1832 

Prof. Robley Dunglison, M.D 108 i. 

Painted by Ford, 1832 

Mrs. Thomas A. Emmet [Jane Patten Emmet] .... 122 ■ 

Painted by her daughter Elizabeth [Mrs. Wm. H. LeRoy] in 1810, while a pupil 
of Robert Fulton 

xxix 



Illustrations 



Thomas A. Emmet 122 ^ 

Painted by his daughter Elizabeth [Mrs. Wm. H. LeRoy] in 1810, while a pupil 
of Robert Fulton. 

Robert Fulton ......... 124 v 

Painted by Miss Elizabeth Emmet [Mrs. Wm. H. LeRoy] about 1814, engraved 
by W. S. Leney and used by Golden in his memoir of Fulton 

Robert Fulton .......... 124 

The same plate, altered by Delaplaine and used for his Repository as a copy from 
a portrait by Benjamin West. 

Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D 130^^ 

From a crayon drawing made in 1849 

Emigrant Refuge Hospital, Ward's Island, and Foot of iioth 

Street where Dr. Emmet Crossed on the Ice . . . 152 ^ 

Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D. ........ 162 ^ 

From a water-color drawing, 1854 

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet, i860 168 

Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D 258" 

From an oil portrait by Archer, 1882 

Robert Emmet .......... 268 ^ 

Death mask taken, by Petrie, after his execution 

Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D. ........ 280 ^ 

From an etching by Max Rosenthal, 1 890 

Thomas A. Emmet ......... 310 

From an oil portrait by Samuel F. B, Morse 

St. Peter's Church, Dublin ....... 342 

Supposed burial-place of Robert Emmet 

Robert Emmet .......... 348 

From a miniature painted by Commerford 
From a pencil sketch taken during the trial 

Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet . . . . . . . -374 

From a photograph, 1880 



Incidents of My Life 



Incidents of my Life 

Chapter I 



sleep — ^I'he approximate nuinijc-r <ji ; . 

grievances of the nursery — Always on , _ ,_,,_, 

described— A leader anuing bms^Leariiuci to r>.ad at an unusually e; :c 

as a boy to study or ale^irn-eKj^W^FSgWl^OS^Kxperience at a Cui 

^^.^^~^^''State Physician— Dublin. From a ininiattilreby the negroes Auid^iMt, 
to ride, an riding my delight on the way 

to school- _ .;,. J s to my future end— Change 

of schools— Explanation as lo the diiiiculty I had in acquiring knowledge at school from 
books— I could only learn from observation or explanation— Mistake in not teaching 
children to think— A child's idea of God "tagging" after her— I seemed never to forget 
what my father taught me— Fond of reading books in advance of the usual taste shown 
by boys— Account of my horse Jim and his pranks. 



■ family was Saxon, according to Sir 

j fej, ' Burke, the Ulster King- at- Arms, and 

iB^^^U^Il i-iiti name means an ant, the emblem of industry 

HBBBP^li ^^^ perseverance, two characteristics for which 

'^! a large proportion of the family have been noted. 

'i Our Arms, according to tradition and verified by 

' Sir Bernard Burke, are in heraldic terms; per pale 

fesse engrailed erm. betw. three bulls' heads cabossed or. and 

re granted during the time of Henry the Second, to Robert De 

-^mott. As the Irish people were obliged to put up with so much 

irom the Anglo-Normans of doubtful advantage, and we know nothing 

to the contrary, it is possible some member of the family may have 

-iginated the first "Irish Bull, " although if there is anything in a name, 

: ant would have been more in keeping. The record of the history- 

of the family demonstrates that for generations both in England and 

Ireland its members have engaged in professional life as a rnlr-^ f, .llowin^ 




aiiilfiinim b rnoiH .nilduG — nBioizyril 9Jb}8 



Incidents of my Life 



Chapter I 



Family history — The Tucker family — My birth and early childhood — Never required much 
sleep — The approximate number of patients treated during my professional life — Early 
grievances of the nursery — Always on the go — Noted as a kicker — General appearance 
described — A leader among boys — Learned to read at an unusually early age — Unable 
as a boy to study or acquire knowledge by rote — Experience at a Corn-Field school- 
house — Playing truant — My dog and dear friend — Taught by the negroes woodcraft, 
to ride, and to shoot — Description of my costume — Hog-back riding my delight on the way 
to school — Mrs. Grant's opinion of me and her prophecy as to my future end — Change 
of schools — Explanation as to the difficulty I had in acquiring knowledge at school from 
books — I could only learn from observation or explanation — Mistake in not teaching 
children to think — A child's idea of God "tagging" after her — I seemed never to forget 
what my father taught me — Fond of reading books in advance of the usual taste shown 
by boys — Account of my horse Jim and his pranks. 




Y father's family was Saxon, according to Sir 
Bernard Burke, the Ulster King- at -Arms, and 
the name means an ant, the emblem of industry 
and perseverance, two characteristics for which 
a large proportion of the family have been noted. 
Our Arms, according to tradition and verified by 
Sir Bernard Burke, are in heraldic terms: per pale 
az. and fa. a fesse engrailed erm. betw. three bulls' heads cabossed or. and 
were granted during the time of Henry the Second, to Robert De 
Emott. As the Irish people were obliged to put up with so much 
from the Anglo-Normans of doubtful advantage, and we know nothing 
to the contrary, it is possible some member of the family may have 
originated the first "Irish Bull, " although if there is anything in a name, 
an ant would have been more in keeping. The record of the history 
of the family demonstrates that for generations both in England and 
Ireland its members have engaged in professional life as a rule, following 



Incidents of my Life 



the medical or legal professions, while in Ireland, at least, during a 
period of some three hundred years, no one of the name seems to have 
been a clergyman. 

My grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, became, at an unusually 
early period of his life, established as a prominent physician in Dublin, 
as his father had become before him. On the death of his elder brother, 
Christopher Temple Emmet, who at the time held the position of the 
head of the Dublin bar at an unprecedentedly early age, my grandfather 
studied law. He was admitted to the bar, and at the time of his arrest 
and imprisonment as a leader in the movement of 1798, he had attained 
in the law a position of great professional promise for his future. After 
an imprisonment of several years, with his wife, in Fort George, Scotland, 
he was released, and after a residence in Paris for some two years longer, 
as the secret agent of the Revolutionary party in Ireland, he settled in 
New York. 

My father, Dr. John Patten Emmet, the second son, was born in 
Ireland and remained several years with the family abroad after his 
father had emigrated to this country. He retained in after-life, in conse- 
quence, a very clear recollection of the situation in Ireland after the 
movements of 1798 and 1803, of which knowledge I became, in my 
boyhood, the eager recipient. 

My mother. Miss Mary Byrd Farley Tucker, was a native of Bermuda. 
The first settler of the name was the second by appointment, and the first 
to serve as a resident governor, and died there in 1624. My mother was 
named after her aunt, the wife of Prof. George Tucker, who was of the 
Byrd family, living at Westover on the James River, Virginia. The 
Tucker family, now to be found throughout the world, had its source in 
the County of Kent, England, where it made its appearance at a very 
early period. It is a matter of record that the head of the family at the 
time, who was a man of prominence, was allowed by King Stephen to 
keep his head always covered in his presence, that he should not suffer 
from exposure in consequence of a chronic catarrh. An unbroken record 
of this branch of the Tucker family has been preserved, from the dis- 
tinguished sniffler to the present time. 

The family in Virginia of this name is descended from St. George 
Tucker, an ofificer in the Revolution who emigrated from Bermuda with 
his brother Dr. Thos. Tudor Tucker. Both took part in the struggle 
with the Colonies against England. 

I was born May 29, 1828, at the University of Virginia, then near 
Charlottesville, but now within the limits of that town, where my father 
was one of the original professors, appointed by Mr. Jefferson to fill the 
chair of Natural History. This subject having been found too extended 



Early Life 



was afterward divided, and my father was designated to teach Chemistry 
and Materia Medica. 

I have but a single record throwing any light upon my early life 
previous to reaching the period when I was able to recall my own 
surroundings. 

I have in my possession a letter written by my father to his sister 
in New York, Mrs. Bache McEvers, and dated August 17, 1828, He 
wrote : 

But no more of the dreams and shadows of the past! You will wish, no 
doubt, that I shall, at the conclusion of this very indefinite letter give some 
account of my little son. At all events I feel disposed to anticipate the desire 
and only hope that I may be able to fortify myself against a father's weakness 
and partiality. First then I have concluded upon christening him Thomas 
Addis Emmet, after our beloved Father,^ but he is to be called simply Addis 
Emmet. 

Altho' a delicate and small child when born, he has since rapidly improved 
and is now very large, plump and heavy. His looks, too, have agreeably 
disappointed his mother, for he is at present a very good looking boy, — indeed 
he may be said to be strikingly so, for everybody notices it. My opinion is, 
however, that his beauty will not continue to manhood at all events, for he 
possesses one of the widest and most expanded foreheads that I have ever seen 
upon an infant. Tom's Johnny has a noble front, but of so different a charac- 
ter that it is not possible to compare them. Were I at this premature period 
to apply the rules of Phrenology I would say that Tom's boy will excel in 
mathematics and sciences, founded upon close reasoning, while my chap will 
become eminent in music, wit and poetry. For God's sake, dear Jane, let 
nobody see this crude speculation, for no one thinks less of bumps and at this 
period of life, than I do. But as the youngsters do actually differ in these 
particulars from most children, there actually seems to be something of the 
kind to begin upon. Young Master Addis now knows his Mother and myself 
and did so before he was two months old. But while I thus give you the 
sweets of his character, I must also be so candid as to add the bitter. He is the 
most troublesome and restless dog living. For whole hours will he lie upon 
his back fidgeting about and moving his quick and restless eyes from one 
object in the room to another. Indeed he sleeps so very little that he compels 

' There was a meeting of the students, and a committee called on my father with the 
request that I should be called Patrick, as I was born on Patrick Henry's birthday, which, 
for some reason was then being honored by one of the literary societies. Tradition holds that 
my mother, who was bom an English subject, gave the casting vote as to the name, and the 
original decision was adhered to. Notwithstanding my profound veneration for the memory 
of my grandfather, and my full appreciation of the honor conferred on me in connection with 
the name, I have always wished that a compromise had been made. I have no record of 
my christening, but if it took place, the name I was to bear could have been as closely related 
with that of St. Patrick, so dear to those of Irish blood as being the most venerated of all the 
saints in the calendar. 



Incidents of my Life 



his mother and father to keep him company during the greater part of every 
night. Sometimes it proceeds from coHc, but more frequently depends upon 
an unknown cause, when asleep and awake, which convinces me that his 
wakefulness is not always attended with pain. When I consider how very 
sound a sleeper I once was, I am filled with astonishment that I am able to 
live upon the scanty allowance taken at present. 

Beyond supplying a link in the chain, there may be nothing more of 
interest in this letter bearing on my after-life, except the reference to 
my sleeplessness. 

I cannot speak for my babyhood, but as a boy I was as unwilling as 
others to go to bed at a regular time, but generally the annoyance was 
due to being interrupted in my reading, or in the desire to finish something 
I was at work on in the mechanical line. 

In after-life when at the head of probably the largest public and 
private practice any man was ever held responsible for, ^ when I was never 
able to get through wdth my day's work, as it presented itself; and when 
the day's work often included one or more desperate surgical operations 
which others had sent me to get rid of, and of which they often dared not 
even divide the responsibility by being present at the operation, I needed 
but five consecutive hours of sleep at any time to keep me in good health. 
But I could do with no less, while more often deprived me of my alertness. 

Frequently my literary labors would deprive me of getting even 
the necessary time for sleep, but I trained myself during my hospital 
service to take sleep whenever the opportunity presented itself and the 
circumstance allowed, so that I could close my eyes and go instantly to 
sleep for one moment, half an hour, or longer, as the time w^as afforded. 

At an early period I became convinced that I was called upon to bear 
a grievous burden, in being subjected to frequent baths, and having my 
face often washed in the interval, and my hair curled, and the last pro- 
ceeding always excited my ire to an uncontrollable degree. How my poor 
nurse, always in the best of humor, could hold me at her arm's length 
to avoid the kicks from my legs and the blows from my arms, both in full 
play, and at the same time apply the curling tongs, was something I 
gave no thought to at the time, but the coup de main, or leger de main, 
exercised on her part, has often since been a serious subject for contem- 
•plation. The whole series of procedure seemed then such a waste 
of time, and especially if the frequent repetition of washings was so 
necessary as claimed. Doubtless my judgment was biassed, and con- 

' I have had occasion recently to go over my Ufe's work, and I have approximated the 
number under my care, and for whose treatment I was directly or indirectly- responsible in 
hospital and private practice, as being between ninety and one hundred thousand women. 
In this number is included the cases seen in consultation where I indicated the line of treatment 
to be followed. 



A Leader among Boys 



sequently of less value, regarding the real advantage of soap and water to 
offset the accumulation of dirt which seems to gather so naturally on the 
body of a growing boy. But my nurse was to a great degree responsible 
for the blunting of my moral sensibilities, as she seemed unable to appre- 
ciate any nice distinction in response to my protests. With my eyes 
filled with soap and feeling as if all my pores had been opened by the 
vigorous manner in which she handled the flesh brush after each ablution, 
I naturally could only think of myself as being a subject of persecution. 

As a boy I was always doing or wanting to do something, and rest was 
something foreign to my nature. Even in my sleep I was active, and 
I have always heard that I generally succeeded in kicking out of bed 
before morning any of the other children put with me. 

My poor old grandmother, with whom I generally slept and who had 
charge of me for many years in consequence of the ill health of my mother, 
and who left, as an off -set, an indelible impression on my moral life by 
her training, often, within my hearing, complained of how her old bones 
ached in consequence of the tattoo I had played upon her with my heels 
during the preceding night. 

I must have more Saxon blood in me than the course of my after- 
life and my devotion to Irish interests would indicate. As a child my 
hair was almost white with every hair in a tight curl, my skin was fair, 
and I had a brilliant complexion. But nothing excited my indignation 
more than to have-the ladies I met pinch my cheeks and call me their 
"peach" — a designation I did not understand and I accepted their 
patronage as an indignity. In struggling to free myself on one occasion 
from being pinched and kissed, I happened to kick one of these ladies on 
her shins, which terminated the proceeding so suddenly that it at once 
gave me the clue to a most effective means of defence. 

I was always the leader among the boys, not from any feeling of 
superiority, but because it came naturally as I generally seemed to know 
what to do. I had nothing of the bully about me, nor can I recall a 
single instance where I ever wilfully precipitated a fight on my own 
account but somehow I was always fighting the battles of others. 

My grandmother taught me to read at an early age, much younger 
than usual, but until early manhood I never developed the faculty of 
acquiring knowledge by so-called study without the aid of another. Con- 
sequently, I never learned to any extent at school, and, in fact, the term 
"school teacher " is a misnomer, when the only function is to hear recitals. 
The so-called teacher was but an impediment to my progress as I could 
alone acquire nothing by rote. 

The first school I attended was in the neighborhood of Charlottes- 
ville, and had for its presiding genius as big a fraud as the vocation of 



Incidents of my Life 



keeping a Virginia corn-field schoolhouse could produce. On my third 
day of attendance at this school without having had any attention by the 
master directed to me, and with no special occupation beyond killing 
flies, I was called up to the dominie. Since the morning studies began 
and for half an hour, I had been most interested in watching the dexterity 
this worthy showed in picking his back teeth with a long dirk-shaped 
knife, which he seemed to carry for the purpose. When he had finished 
his morning exercise I was seized by him and mounted on the back of the 
largest boy in school, and having adjusted the seat of my trousers to his 
satisfaction, I was paddled with his fiat ruler until he was short of 
breath from his exertion. His curiosity seemed to have been excited 
and his indignation roused as I made no outcry, and his first impulse 
on looking at me was to ply again the ruler, but, for want of breath, he 
ordered my mount to release me. While this was being done he told 
me the procedure had been offered as an incentive that I should devote 
some time at least to the spelling book, the existence and need of which 
he evidently thought I had ignored. As soon as I got a footing and 
could reach a large stoneware inkstand, I threw it at his head and ran 
for the door. 

The next day and for an indefinite period after, whenever I appeared 
at school, the same procedure was gone through with, only varied on my 
part in the selection of a missile, the choice of which lay between a Latin 
dictionary and the spittoon. But I could seldom make a successful 
shot in my haste, and from long practice he generally caught my favors 
on the fly. Every week the most gratifying report was sent my father, 
and as the worthy generally walked over on Saturday to talk of m^^ "grati- 
fying progress, " and to deliver in person the weekly report, he was asked 
to remain for dinner, when he was, much to my disgust, most affectionate 
and patronizing. As other boys soon followed my example, in playing 
truant, I naturally supposed our course was a frequent episode in the 
experience of every schoolboy. I had no desire to deceive, but I never 
mentioned my experience to my father, as he said nothing to me to call 
for it and I was satisfied that the status quo should remain. 

On leaving the school I would never have to go any distance before I 
was met by my dearest of all friends, my dog, bounding toward me in 
ecstasy, knowing that for the whole day he was to have me all to himself. 
My dog seemed to know from instinct that the schoolmaster was a hum- 
bug who could not be trusted, so he always disappeared just before 
reaching school, but remained on the lookout for my reappearance. 
He was never reconciled to the man, who had probably given him a blow 
at some time, and always expressed his disapproval at every visit the 
schoolmaster made to the house, by constantly growling and showing to 



Description of Costume 



the best advantage his front teeth. On leaving school we would be off 
for a neighboring mill-pond for a good swim, or I would hunt up some of 
my friends who were equally in quest of companionship or a game of 
ball, or we would be off to the mountains seeking signs as to the pres- 
ence of wild turkeys or any other game in the neighborhood, which would 
be utilized on the following Saturday, when I could leave home with my 
gun, without attracting attention. 

Incidentally, I should state that at an early age my father had me 
instructed in various sports by the young negro men about the house, 
so that I learned to ride and had a horse, and to shoot and had a gun long 
before any boy of my age would be trusted in the city out of the sight of a 
nursery governess. 

My father feared I might inherit his physical condition of the lungs, 
so that as soon as I was strong enough to bear the fatigue, I was sent off 
with these men on long tramps. I thus learned from them everything 
in relation to woodcraft and the signs of the weather. At ten years of 
age I was quite a good shot with a gun made specially for me, and I could 
take care of myself. On these tramps I learned to follow the wild bees 
and became quite expert in finding their hives in the hollow trees, and 
became familiar to some extent with the habits of every bird and animal 
in the country. 

I was always started from home after having been dressed with the 
greatest care, at least as to cleanliness. I wore a blue or buff nankeen 
cotton suit, made at home, with jacket and trousers in one and but- 
toned up behind the length of my spine. The main feature as to style 
was the addition of two short coat-tails behind, which gave the general 
effect of a stunted dress coat. The whole "get up" was crowned, as 
it were, by an immense linen collar extending from shoulder to shoulder 
and encircled with a frill about three inches deep, which was always 
fluted with the greatest care. For this decoration I felt an uncom- 
promising disgust, as it always placed me, with my long curly hair, under 
a great disadvantage in case of a fight. My antipathy for shoes and 
stockings was equally great, unless in cold weather. In a stone fence 
near the house I formed a receptacle for storing this collar, my shoes 
and stockings, and my books until my return in the afternoon, at the 
regular time when I was supposed to have spent the day at school. 

At no time was my progress along the public highway a silent tramp, 
I was always practising a very shrill whistle which I had acquired with 
my fingers, or I journeyed on, singing at the top of my voice. I was 
never silent unless my attention was attracted by some new insect, or I 
wished to study the movements of the ants as they were rushing in 
and out of their nest. These insects always interested me greatly 



8 Incidents of my Life 

and possibly I had been told that at least we had the same name in 
common. 

In my early childhood the streets in Charlottesville and the different 
roads leading into the town were occupied by a great number of hogs, of 
a breed then known in Virginia as Albemarle razorbacks. They were 
the only scavengers and in consequence seemed to consider themselves 
the monarchs of all they surveyed; at least, they would never move or 
turn out for any person or vehicle. At a later period they became a 
nuisance and were prohibited from being at large in the streets. 

They were large, very strong, and great fighters among themselves 
for the possession of a favorite mud-hole, and no dog was ever known to 
attack them. They were my delight, and nothing silenced my "via- 
chant" sooner than the sight of one of these beasts, with the most 
contented expression enjoying a nap, stretched out at full length in a 
mud-hole. I would instantly become oblivious to all surroundings while 
I was stealthily ci-eeping to reach a point near enough for a spring into 
the mud-hole on top of the hog. While he or she was jumping up to 
take in the situation, I would seize an ear in each hand and if I was 
ever able to get my toes crossed under the hog I was sure of my mount 
and of a good ride. 

Down the road or street we would go, I shouting at the top of my 
voice like a Comanche Indian, and my mount going on the full run for 
some place where one or more lower boards were wanting in the fence 
on either side, and there I was ignominiously scraped off as the hog 
dashed under and into the gap. Then I had to pay the piper, first, by 
going back to find my lunch-box, hat, or anything I might have dropped. 
I had then to find grass and weeds enough to remove as much of the 
mud as possible, for after one of these rides, as Mantalini expressed it, 
I was always "dem'd moist." I got what aid I could from the sun, 
but it required in addition considerable labor on my part to get dry and 
remove the mud remaining, before I could make myself in any way 
presentable. 

On going home in the afternoon my mother never failed to meet me 
at the door with a kiss, but always with — "Addis, my dear boy, you 
should be more careful and not get your clothes so covered with mud. 
I know the roads are very bad, but you must be careless, and why is it 
that your collar and shoes are not covered with mud as are your clothes ? 
And you smell so of the pigs ! " I was never asked to offer any explana- 
tion, nor do I know if my mother ever attempted to solve the problem. 
My old negro nurse would be called, who seized me with a chuckle in 
anticipation of the sousing and liberal allowance of turpentine soap I 
was to receive at her hands. 




JammH nsMs^ nrio|_ .aiM 

££81 ,faioT yd faaJnifi*! 




^Charlottesville and the different 

>:at number of hogs, of 

■orbacks. They were 

ud to consider themselves 

they would never move or 

ter perior] 

•.rge in the . 

lighters among thembelvts 

' no dog -u'as ever known to 

enced my "via- 

""■ith the most 



it enough tor a 



Mrs. John Patten Emmet 

[Mary Byrd Farley Tucker] 

Painted by Ford, 1833 



■'I'.iUllt 

the top of my 



g on the full run for 

wantine in 'lie [.;■■■_ e 



anything 

ap'h to r ; ... ._,... 

ini expressed it, 

:_: 1 .,uid from the sun, 

: on my part to get dr\' and 

: m nl'o m\'t;pli in an-v? WaV 



'er any explana- 



lijv 1 '.. 



e called, ^ 

u u;c s.jLK-iM!< and libera! 
; at her hands. 





^ 



Mrs. Grant 9 

When in the midst of one of these John-Gilpin-like courses, I often 
passed, in a lonely portion of the road, the house of a Mrs. Grant, who 
seemed to have no friends and lived alone. I was never on speaking 
terms with this good woman, but somehow instinct seemed to indicate 
to me that should we ever meet on neutral ground, we might be good 
friends. She had several fruit trees about her house and was constantly- 
annoyed at the raids made on these by the boys of the neighborhood. 
In these expeditions I took no part, for my father had a number of fruit 
trees in which he took great pride and I was at an early age impressed 
with the existence of a right of ownership in them. She seemed to 
recognize my position and never swore at me or called me "poor Buckra, " 
as she did the other boys. When I passed her way in the midst of a wild 
chant, rendered at the top of my voice, and of such forcible features that 
the old rooster could never resist the temptation of springing upon the 
fence to see what it was all about, she was evidently greatly tempted 
to be outspoken and thus give vent to something which was on her mind 
in regard to boys generally. 

I never passed her house without having a few carefully selected 
stones in my pocket for my old friend, the rooster, who I knew would 
never learn anything from experience, as he would spring up on the fence 
as usual, bringing his body above the horizon and clearly standing out 
against the bright sky as a background, and I would see how near I could 
come to his head without striking him. I seldom missed "winding" 
him, so that he would fall off his perch fully dazed, and probably with a 
headache after, for which he would be unable to account on the score of 
any dissipation. 

But whenever on a hog I passed in full song, she seemed to laugh and 
I rather think enjoyed the exhibition. But I was always saluted in the 
same strain; "You, Addis Emmet, you is the biggest villain I ever did 
see, and if you don't broke your neck sometime, you is bound to be hung, 
I 'm sure. " As I lived beyond the reach of the English government, my 
Irish blood was not disturbed by her prophecy, and that the danger 
of breaking my neck was never realized by me, might be attributed 
to the thoughtlessness of youth. 

My father at length understood the position at school, and I was 
sent to one in Charlottesville where I at least respected the teacher, 
as he was a good man and made every effort to gain the good will and 
respect of the boys, but I learned little and was always at the foot of 
my classes. 

I became, however, an expert quill-pen maker, one of the first 
things taught before learning to write, and the schoolmaster had always 
to be proficient, as many of the boys could never acquire the art, and 



Incidents of my Life 



he was kept busy in pen mending and in ruling lines for the writing 
class, as I believe ruled paper had not yet come into use. My father 
made for his own use a gold pen about 1834, which he used 
for years, and also one of glass as a curiosity, but the steel pen did 
not come into general use until about 1840, and were all imported 
from England. 

While I make this statement as to my capacity it is scarcely a just 
one in my seeming stupidity, for I was learning something every day 
of my life, and I believe few boys at my age knew as much which was of 
practical value. I was always an investigator, I saw everything about me, 
and was ever seeking a reason, and was associated with those at home who 
never failed patiently to give every explanation to my inquiries. In this 
respect I was particularly fortunate. In after-life I realized this all the 
more when I had the responsibility of bringing up a number of children 
of my own. I then learned the necessity, difficult as it often was, for 
giving a reason. Some explanation should always be given to every 
inquiry, and this must be done until children reach a degree of develop- 
ment where they are able with proper training, to make sorhe use of 
their own reasoning faculties. The training of children in the past as 
well as the present seems to me particularly defective in laying the 
foundation for a proper development of the brain in later life. With 
the gradual development of the brain children should be taught to think, 
as the only sure foundation for all profitable education, and the stimulus 
must be given by encoiiraging them to ask questions and by answering 
them. The more we investigate this subject will we find what a lack of 
brains exists with so many in after-life from the want of training during 
the developing period, and the more are we able to appreciate the wise 
provision embodied in the natural instinct which Nature has granted 
every individual. With many this becomes the only means of protection 
for those who do not, or cannot, think. The faculty of thinldng properly, 
or to the best advantage for the development of the brain, is progressive 
and must be cultivated with successive generations, as the development is 
slow. Several generations in a family may pass before the result of this 
training is shown by the advent of some individu.al with an intellectual 
development beyond the average. 

Parents are frequently most culpable in not realizing the great respon- 
sibility resting upon them, through their neglect in giving a child the 
fullest explanation, and whether the child seeks it or not, it should be 
given the material for thought on its own part. 

I once heard the following story given as a good joke, and without 
the slightest appreciation of the harm done. A little girl was told with- 
out explanation that God was everywhere and always with us, that He 



Teaching Children to Think ii 

saw everything one did, and even knew what one was thinking about, 
and with other statements to impress the omnipresence of the Almighty. 
It was noticed that the child became very grave, and shortly after got 
up and went out into the grounds. She was followed by a puppy which 
came frisking after her. On turning and seeing she was followed, the child 
was heard to say: "Do for gracious sake, go into the house; it is bad 
enough to have God tagging after me all the time, without you coming 
too ! " This child's sense of justice was outraged by the manner in which 
the statement was made to her, and it is doubtful if the impression was 
ever removed in after-life, or replaced by any appreciation of love and 
veneration for the Supreme Being. I recall hearing, as a child, of a 
woman in the neighborhood who meeting with some reverses, undertook 
a school for children. She was found incompetent and in proof the story 
was told that whenever a child went to her asking the meaning of some 
unusual word or a very long one, she invariably answered: "Never mind, 
dear, you can skip that over; it is the name of some big city or town!" 
The instinct which prompted this woman to hide her ignorance did less 
harm than the failure to give the little girl some explanation, which un- 
fortunately the mother was unable to furnish, or owing to a want of a 
sense of responsibility she failed to supply. 

As a child I can recall when on a visit hearing mothers tell their chil- 
dren: "Little children should be seen but not heard!" No better 
means could be devised for bringing up a child to be a cipher in after-life. 
A child, trained under proper discipline should be heard and seen far 
more than is the usual custom by the parents, and we would then have 
fewer stupid men and women in the world, who, from the lack of such 
training in early life, pass their existence without serious thought on any 
subject, being both blind and deaf as to any benefit from what was 
going on about them. Those responsible for the bringing up of children 
are too frequently derelict to their trust. As the foundation for educa- 
ting a child begins with teaching it to think as soon as it begins to speak, 
and by impressing the importance on the children of seeing and hearing 
everything not of a private nature, going on about them. This doubtless 
will prove a difficult and irksome task for most people, and especially for 
those who had themselves no training, but it is none the less obligatory. 
The following old story will illustrate my position. 

A clergyman had been for some time instructing the members of a 
class in their catechism, possibly preparing them for their first communion. 
When he thought they were prepared he had a final hearing, but was 
astonished to find none of his questions could be answered. As he 
passed from one boy to another with the question: "Who made you? " 
he finally reached one a little brighter than the others and was answered : 



Incidents of my Life 



"I don't know Sir, but the boy God made went out and said he would 
be back soon. " 

Evidently the teacher thought as little and was no better an observer 
than his pupils. The boys had naturally preserved the same order they 
had when each in turn and from the first time had received his special 
instruction, with his answer. The teacher had not noticed that they 
were always in the same order, and had given no instruction as to the 
importance that each boy should listen and think about what he had 
heard imparted to the others. Naturally the absence of the boy "God 
made" disarranged the programme, where each child had learned by rote 
only what had been crammed especially into him, and had not been taught 
the necessity that he should also know in addition all each boy had been 
supposed to know. It is exceedingly difficult to remove the first im- 
pression any child receives, and hence the value for preserving the faith 
of an individual in after-life if the instruction be truthfully taught at the 
mother's knee. If the impression be an erroneous one, or the child re- 
ceives a false conception of it, the consequences are often serious. Many 
years ago, I recollect, a friend related to me an incident in connection 
with one of his children. He had attempted to convey to her mind what 
faith was, by lifting her up on to the top of a bureau and saying : ' ' Now 
faith is for you to jump off the bureau into my arms, being sure that I 
will catch you, and that you will not be hurt." She had nearly reached 
womanhood when he told me the story, and she was yet unable to divest 
her mind entirely of the impression that, by some means she could not 
understand, jumping off a bureau was closely associated with the belief 
in anything ! 

While I could not study to any advantage, or at least find any one but 
my father who could impart knowledge to me by always explaining, I 
read a great deal, as my father had quite a large library, but one chiefly 
of a scientific character. While a boy I did not appreciate poetry and 
never could understand why such a roundabout method, as it seemed to 
me, should be employed for expressing what could be stated in prose by 
a more direct manner. I read what I found in prose in the form of 
travels, novels, history, and many scientific treatises, much of which I 
could not understand, but many of the subjects interested me. I can 
recall reading with the greatest interest a treatise on mining, in relation 
to the opening of some early anthracite coal mine in Pennsylvania, and 
the undertaking was considered only as an experiment by the writer. 
The subject was one new to me and I was particularly interested in the 
miner's lamp, which Davy had recently invented. In reading this paper 
I mastered some knowledge of many details which have been of service 
in after-life and to such subjects at that time I often applied myself with 



Pranks of Jim 13 

closer interest than many a boy of the same age would have given to a 
book of fairy tales. 

As the school was at a greater distance I now had to ride on horseback. 
Old Jim was one of my chums and we had been friends for years, but he 
was a grand scamp and was as devoid of all moral training as it was pos- 
sible for any horse to be. I rode about three miles to this school and 
would take off the saddle and bridle for Jim to forage during the day on 
the town commons, or break in wherever he could find a better selection 
of food. He was always on hand when the time came for going home, 
and I generally started with one or two boys riding behind me. Jim 
was very fond of the boys and was a great favorite with them, and he was 
often made the recipient of an apple or something left over from lunch. 
A ride on him was highly prized by the boys and generally there was no 
trouble, but sometimes he would try to be facetious and with one big 
wrinkle in his back and by giving a kind of broncho skip he had acquired, 
we would all be suddenly deposited in the road. He would then walk 
on slowly without knowing, apparently, what had happened, browsing 
here and there waiting for me to come up to him. Then with a kind of 
chuckle, he would throw his heels up in the air, as if bent on knocking 
my head off. He would enjoy the sport of making me walk home, and 
if I did not come after him he would come back and lift his upper lip 
as if laughing at me, but I could never get near enough to lay my hand on 
him. He would go to the stable and stand at the door in a most penitent 
posture for me to remove the saddle and bridle. Then the old fraud would 
begin a pantomime exhibition to show me how sorry he was for treating 
me so badly, and for conduct, which he would try to tell me there was no 
excuse, and by rubbing his head against mine he would try to assure me 
that if a horse ever took an oath, he was ready to swear he would never 
do so again, The compact was generally accepted as he knew it would 
be, and he got his lump of sugar, but poor Jim had very little regard for 
his word. 



Chapter II 



• farm — Making sewing silk — My father's inventions for twisting, and many dyes made by 
him were aftervi^ards adapted by the trade — Difficulty about his boundary line — His 
adventure with a neighbor who shot a valuable dog while chained up in his kennel — His 
silk factory destroyed by an incendiary — Custom of carrying firearms — A relic of frontier 
life — Holding of the county court — Strange characters — Street fights — Morea the 
name of my father's place — Description of the house — Speculation in the Morus multi- 
caulis plants^It was expected that this country would produce the silk fabrics of the 
world — Recollection of my father's companionship — Its effect — An early riser with my 
dog — How I spent the time everj^ morning before going to school — Traps and snares 
— Shooting stars of 1835 — Effect on the negroes — Longevity of some of the negroes 
— "Corn shucking" described — Comment on the singing of the negroes of that period — 
Now a lost art — The London concert-hall music and the so-called negro minstrels, a 
burlesque — The last of a family and a spinster who had seen better days — Struggle to 
keep up appearances — Description of her "get up" and of a state dinner without dessert 
— "The big gobbler done eat all the dessert up" — Peculiarities of some of the negroes — 
Idea of resisting temptation in not stealing all the opportunity afforded — Several 
negro stories — Robbing hen roosts. 




]E lived on a small farm, near the University, of a little 
more than one hundred acres, where my father 
passed some ten years in great enjoyment. He had 
originally made the purchase while a resident within 
the University, and for the purpose of establishing 
a silk factory. The place was divided into fields, 
by forming hedges of the Morus multicaulis , which 
he had planted to feed the silkworms, hence the place was called 
Morea. He succeeded in gaining a full knowledge as to the care of the 
silkworm and, as a great labor-saving device, he invented a machine 
for twisting any number of filaments together as they were being drawn 
off from a number of cocoons floating in a receptacle of hot water, while 
previous to that time each thread had to be disposed of separately. He 
succeeded in making a number of skeins of silk of different grades 
which were judged to be of better quality than any other silk pre- 
viously produced in this country. From his knowledge of chemistry 
he produced a number of beautifully tinted dyes for the silk, which did 



Destruction of the Silk Factory i5 

not fade or wash out, and I have seen it stated that his teaching was 
adapted by the trade and remained in use until the discovery in late 
years of the coal-tar products. 

My father had had trouble for some time about a portion of his 
boundary line which was finally settled by the courts in his favor. Shortly 
after, his neighbor came on the place and shot a fine watch-dog in his 
kennel which my father had imported, and he had never been unchained, 
unless some one was in charge of him. My father saw at a distance the 
man coming, and as he noticed that he was armed he expected personal 
violence and so hastened to the house to arm himself, but only reached 
the man as he had fired and killed the dog. My father with his gun 
cocked covered him before his approach was known, and then made 
the man walk in front of him off the place in the direction he had come, 
with the assurance that he would receive instantly a load of buckshot 
in him should he attempt to turn. On his way, he told my father that 
he had shot the dog as he had killed so many of his sheep, and that he 
had been forced to take the law into his own hands from having so many 
personal enemies that no jury would decide in his favor. Within a few 
nights after, the building my father had for his silk making was destroyed 
by fire which was evidently an incendiary one, but of which no proof for 
action could be obtained. Within a few months after, this man, who, 
though of good family and of remarkable literary attainments, supple- 
mented by an education abroad, had become a common drunkard, was 
found frozen to death where he had fallen on his way home during 
the previous night. 

In this connection, but several years after the destruction of my 
father's silk factory, a speculative craze overran the whole country and 
lasted a year or more, as a consequence of an overissue of paper money, 
by what was termed the "Wild-Cat" banks of the country. There were 
no banking laws for the whole country, and the issue of one State did not 
circulate in another except at a discount, and the gold and silver issue of 
the United States, not being sufficient for the needs of the country at large, 
disappeared from circulation. During a condition apparently of the 
greatest prosperity and with the most extended inflation, the coun- 
try suddenly became bankrupt in 1837, and to this I have referred 
elsewhere. 

As a speculative movement it was generally believed that the manu- 
facturing of silk was to be the future industry of the country, and it was 
held that it would prove the most profitable one the country could engage 
in. This caused the Morns multicaulis craze, which seemed to have 
had much in common with the Dutch tulip speculation of the eighteenth 
century, as the wild speculative features of both seemed to have been most 



Incidents of my Life 



attractive to the women, who at any sacrifice became expectant of the 
fabulous wealth which was to accrue. 

In the autumn of probably 1836, but I have no means of establishing 
the date, a gentleman from Philadelphia and a relative of one of the 
professors at the University, through whom he had learned of these 
hedges on my father's place, spent several days, with several young men 
to aid him, in establishing the value of a number of bushes my father had 
agreed to sell, I think, at thirty cents for each fresh bud or new growth. 
These were all carefully counted and each bush was tagged accordingly. 
I was particularly interested in the tags, which I had never seen before. 
They seemed to be made of nearly transparent parchment, by saturating 
thick white paper with oil, and my interest was great on finding they could 
not be torn and that water had no effect on them. At length the buds 
were all counted, the market value thus established, and my father 
received three thousand dollars in bank bills. I had never seen so much 
money before, and it is a remarkable circumstance that, with no thought 
to the transaction since, I am able to recall that these notes were all 
issued by the Farmers' Bank of Richmond, Va., of which bank I have 
never had any other knowledge, even as to its existence by name. These 
bushes, with their roots tied up in bagging cloth, filled the body of a large 
two-horse wagon. They were carted to a boat on the Rivanna River 
below Charlottesville, and then down the river by boat to the James 
River and Kanawha canal to Richmond, and from there were shipped 
on a sailing vessel to Philadelphia. The gentleman on paying for what 
he had received offered my father seven thousand dollars for all the 
other plants he had remaining on the place, an offer my father unfor- 
tunately declined. The purchaser, on reaching Philadelphia, was offered 
twenty thousand on his purchase in Virginia. Unfortunately he also 
declined, as the future seemed so bright for a still greater rise, but the 
following spring the bubble burst and by which result nearly every adult 
in the country lost something, as the banks failed which held the sup- 
posed profits. My father, as one of the first to urge the introduction of 
the silk industry into the country, and who demonstrated the advan- 
tages from the culture, was so fortunate as to have lost nothing, for the 
three thousand dollars he received paid for and compensated him for the 
building which was burned down. 

Since early in the third decade of the last century, great changes have 
taken place in this country, showing the advance of civilization. This is 
particularly true in reference to the South and in the use of firearms, 
where the usages of frontier life, in defence against the Indians, were 
maintained long after the necessity had ceased at the North. Every 
male inhabitant became self-reliant and familiar with the use of arms 



The Holding of County Court i7 

at an early age and many continued the practice of being armed long 
after the need had ceased. 

When I was a boy, a meeting of the county court was held at the 
court-house in Charlottesville on the first Monday of every month. 
Every one within a distance, which could be covered by several hours' 
ride on horseback, attended, either to settle their business for the month, 
from curiosity, or to kill time on the surrounding green where their 
quarrels were generally settled with their fists. If a quarrel was of a 
more serious nature and one in which others were engaged, the street 
became sometimes the scene of the contest. After the two o'clock dinner 
at the old Eagle Tavern, opposite and facing the same square, there was 
generally a good deal of drinking as well as quarrelling going on. Con- 
sequently, in the afternoon, at frequent intervals, every one would be 
compelled to seek shelter behind some projection in the street until the 
contestants had emptied their pistols or rifles. These street fights seemed 
to excite little interest except among those who participated in the 
scrimmage. Notwithstanding the fact that the killing of some one was 
a not infrequent occurrence, nothing was ever done unless the case, was 
brought before the grand jury by some one as a wilful murder, and the 
funeral of the victim would be conducted without comment as if the 
death had resulted from a natural cause. 

At a somewhat later period, when my curiosity prompted me to 
suspend the effort of acquiring knowledge, I absented myself from 
school to see what was going on at the court-house. I can recall, on 
one occasion, seeing a Colonel Bankhand, one of the features on these 
court days, who, always seen abroad on horseback, made the inference 
possible that centaur-like he was an inseparable part of the animal he 
bestrode. On warm days, when the court-house windows were open, 
he would, in order the better to take in the proceedings, urge his horse 
close to one of the windows, and on such occasions the animal would often 
thrust its head through as if eager to see all that was going on within. 
This worthy colonel was not an advocate of total abstinence, and when- 
ever he felt it his duty, as a good citizen, to contribute to the increase of 
his country's revenue, he presented himself, half horse and half man, at 
the bar. I have heard that he left the saddle during the day only when 
it was necessary to feed his horse and himself. Being a man with a good 
appetite, and doubtless good judgment when his interest was effected, it 
would appeal to his common sense, if not his instinct, that at a meal to 
sustain nature it was necessary all food should be within reach of his 
fork. The old Eagle Tavern on the Court-House Square, which disap- 
peared many years ago, was then a feature and had been built during 
the Colonial days. The recollection of seeing this man ride up, as was 



i8 Incidents of my Life 



his custom, the broad stairway in this tavern, out onto the piazza of the 
second story, and around to the other side of the house to visit a friend, 
caused this digression from my subject. 

Just after the birth of my sister, in the spring of 1832, we left our old 
home within the precinct of the University, where I was born, and moved 
to Morea. "^ I recollect laying the corner brick at the southwest corner, 
under the direction of and with my father's assistance, and of watching, 
with the greatest interest, the building of the house. Here I spent over 
nine years of my life, and it seems as if I can recall with the greatest 
interest and pleasure every hour I passed there. The most abiding im- 
pression that has come down to me from that period is the recollection of 
my father, who was a man of profound attainments, the only man I ever 
knew who seemed to possess a knowledge above the average of everything, 
and who coiild accomplish all he ever undertook in mechanics or the 
arts. As I have stated in my sketch of his life, for years previous to his 
death he had been my constant companion. It is my belief few fathers 
ever made a more lasting impression upon the moral development and 
after-life of their sons than he made upon mine. From my earliest age 
he seemed seldom to have spoken to me without attempting to teach me 
something, which I readily understood, and of which I seemed to have 
retained the recollection. I can recall one of our earliest talks; on being 
asked why a robin in front of us on the grass would jump along a few 
steps and then suddenly stop, I was about to give an answer when my 
father said: "Think before you speak, otherwise yoiu- opinion will be of 
no value. ' ' I thought a moment and said : ' ' He seems to be looking to see 
if any one is coming after him. " My father said : " He is listening for his 
breakfast, but not for the bell to ring as we have to do. All birds and 
animals, which are not tame, live on some other insect, animal, or bird, 
which they have to catch. The robin lives on the earthworm and has to 
get a great many of them before he has had enough. Now the earth- 
worm is as busy as the robin in looking for his breakfast, and as he works 
his way through the earth the robin hears him and knows just where 
to stick his bill in and pull him out. To be able to do this the robin is 
probably able to hear better than any other creature, while the earth- 
worm is likely deaf, or he would hear the robin hopping along over his 

' This sketch of the house I drew with a pen after a lapse of thirty-four years since I had 
seen it. My negro nurse is represented after she had made an unprofitable investment of 
about three hundred pounds in flesh and had long become a non-producer. She has a broom 
at her side, not for use, but for general effect, and she would be likely to remain in this chosen 
position, free from care, until her next meal was ready. My chicken-house and yard are shown 
alongside of the kitchen, and the projecting building on the other side of the house was the 
common sitting-room of the family, into which the sun seemed always to shine. In front of 
each window in the dining-room stood all the winter a large stand of flowers, which my mother 
cared for with great devotion. 



fiinigiiV ^o yJiaiavinU 

Yd 8q8i ni xiomsm moil abfim gniwEib-naq b moi"? 

jamma .A .T .iQ 



iS 



..;, A cleft our old 
born, and moved 
outhwest ( 



Li tfc. The most abiding ini- 

. . period is the recollection of 

attainments, the only man I ever 

above the average of everything, 

: in mechanics or the 

■ yc'ir- previous to his 



my earliest at' 

Residence of Prof. Emmet near the ;^,3 -^each me 

University of Virginia " .^ ^o have 

From a pen-drawing made from memory in 1898 by , on being 

Dr. T. A. Emmet f,.-.- 



tr liis 

l;S and 

.iisect, animal, or bird, 

,,iiiL : ;uc « - ' ...o earthworm and has to 

get a great is had enough. Now the earth- 

, -. - his breakfast, and as he works 

him and knows just where 

■ .\.\r 'o ■■.-. h-< the robin is 

■ the earth- 

[\g over his 

■ars sjvc.e I had 

,,...i.lc investment of 

er. She has a^'broom 

-cmnm in this chosen 

■ o. shown 

A as the 

Vunt of 

■Tiother 



Father's Companionship ^9 

head, and would keep quiet until he was gone, but the robin would not 
then get his breakfast."^ He repeated to me Swift's lines: 

"Big fleas have little fleas to bite them. 
And little fleas have lesser fleas, — so on ad infinitum.'' 

These two Latin words were probably the first I ever heard the 
meaning of. My father then explained the work of the earthworms, 
which were countless in number and how by their tunnelling and bringing 
the earth to the surface gave it air and made it so that vegetation could 
exist, and that the earth would otherwise become a desert, but for this 
constant boring by the worms. We could get no reliable food without 
vegetation, nor could we live without good air, which we get from vege- 
tation. Plants, on the other hand, could not continue to grow if they did 
not obtain a supply of air which had been used by animals, and after it 
had been purified by vegetation it then in turn became in a condition 
necessary for the life of animals. He thus in a few simple words explained 
the law of compensation existing throughout creation, and made it plain 
to a young child that there was a use and a purpose for everything. 
My father thus, without the slightest strain on my mind or body, began 
the development of my brain by its own action, in furnishing me some- 
thing of interest to think about whenever I was alone, and the subject 
would present itself spontaneously. 

This training of the mind will be again considered in connection 
with the influence exerted by the teaching of a good mother. 

My father taught me to think, and to think of the rights of others ; 
to be careful in money matters ; to obey the laws of God and man from 
principle, and to realize to a full degree my duty to both. He taught me 
to be a close observer, and to seek the causes of everything. Thus was 
laid the foundation of my success in after-life. I have gone through 
life with an increasing ambition to be worthy of his good name, and my 
first thought has been of the gratification he would have experienced in 
the flesh, on every occasion when I have attained success or have been 
the recipient of some honor. 

My dog was, as a rule, the first creature to stir about on the place 
at daylight, and I was always a good second. He was seldom allowed to 
come into the house, unless as a guest, but he took advantage of the 
fact that no one was up. As the back door was never closed at any hour 
or season, according to Southern custom, he would come up to my room, 

' It is now believed that the long-eared bat has the most acute sense of hearing of all other 
creatures. When feeding it is able to open out its ears to make large ear trumpets of them, 
and to turn them in different directions so as to hear the motion of the wings of the smallest 
gnat. When not feeding, and to enable it to sleep, this bat can fold up its ears into a small 
space and pack them away. 



20 Incidents of my Life 



where he always found the door wide open, and would spring on the bed, 
dive under the covering, as I had taught him, and go rooting about in his 
efforts to get them off the bed. I would snore and pretend to be asleep 
untn he had pulled everything from the bed on to the floor, and then if I 
did not get up, he would begin to nibble at my toes, pretending that he 
was about to make the effort to pull me out of bed. I would suddenly 
spring out of bed, and he would express his wish for a good-morning by 
jumping all over me and by licking my face. He would then curl up in 
the bedclothing and wait until I had made my toilet which was never 
an elaborate one, as some hours later I knew I was to be overhauled for 
school. We would be off first to the stables, and I would help to harness 
up and would be delighted, if I was in time to get a ride, by taking the 
horses to water before they started for the fields. I would be off with the 
men, asking questions about all details connected with the work going 
on. Soon I would be joined by the negro boys on the place and we would 
be off to see what luck we had had with our traps and snares in a swamp 
at the back of the house. Then I would look after my chickens, of which 
I had a large number, or dig for a while in my garden, well stocked with 
flowers and a few vegetables, and these I was always able to dispose of 
to my mother, although the garden of the place was fully stocked. 
I think she wished to encourage me in this kind of work as a means of 
fully developing my chest. With all these interests I was able to get 
through several hours of true fun and healthy enjoyment before the 
time came for my nurse to gather me up to herself for a bath, then 
breakfast, and an ostensible start for school. 

Morea and the neighborhood was at this time a sportsman's paradise. 
We had a large number of quail, then designated in the South as part- 
ridges, a great many rabbits, which were probably hares, as they never 
burrowed, and on the mountains were to be found the ruffed grouse, or a 
species of partridge, which were called pheasants. Wild turkeys were 
becoming scarce in our immediate neighborhood, as well as deer. But 
during a long season of frost in the winter, both would sometimes be seen 
on the place, as well as the footprints of a small brown bear, who had 
spent a good portion of the previous night about the pig-sty in the hope 
of getting at a young pig in time for breakfast. 

There was an abundance of gray squirrels, which a true sportsman 
would wind, or cause to fall unconscious to the ground from the close 
passage of the ball to their heads, and these squirrels being thus killed 
by the fall would have their skins intact. The winter season was one of 
continued enjoyment. Sleighing was seldom possible, but the time 
was fully occupied with skating and the toboggan slide, and with shooting 
and trapping. The garden contained between six and eight acres and 



20 



-ring on the bed, 

■ ihoutinhis 

1. 1 be asleep 

)or, arid then if I 

'•tending that he 



tier I knew 1 was lo be overhauled for 
■^he stables, and I wovild help to harness 
up and would !>e dehghted, it 1 was in time to get a ride, by taking the 
horses to water before they started for the fields. " I would be off with the 
men asking questions about all details connect^ vork going 

on. Soon i would be joined b 1-^ -vr. bov^o- ^^^-would 

be off to see what hick we h. 

•ttthebackof th_ ■■'=^. J , at t^ 

1 J 1 ^«„ Prof. John Patten Emmet, M.D. 
L had a large nu J 

flowers and a feu ,.^cu.Painted by Ford, 1834 

to my toother, aU hough 

I think she wish'- ' ' "'' 

fully developine 

through several r .n.;, >-... 

time came for my nurse ' 

breakfast, and an ostr— -'■ 

Moreaandthenei, 
We had a large number "i ^{u.: 
ridges, a great many rabbits, wl 
burrowed, and on the mountains \n 



luiiy stocked, 

as a means of 

^ able to get 

■ ^cHore the 



radise. 
, . IS part- 
as they never 
ruffed grouse, or a 



burrowea, anu un ti^^ uiw^wv^xw., , ^ 1 

.oecie. of partridge, which were called pheasants. Wild turke^-s were 



in the hope 



a true sportsman 

.,ri fr^"" <he close 
as killed 
J , one of 
'ie time 
-iiooting 
res and 



Shooting Stars of 1835 21 



was surrounded with a hedge of Pyracantha, a species of thorn which 
would turn aside man or animal in a first attempt to force a passage. 
The thorns were more abundant on the outer surface, and within, along 
the ground, a good shelter was afforded for many animals and birds, 
particularly rabbits and quail. 

I recollect being called up one night, after I had gone to sleep, to see 
the shooting stars of 1835. This sight is claimed to have been the 
most magnificent spectacle ever witnessed by man. As a sleepy and 
tired boy I was taken out of bed when in a condition the least likely to be 
interested in anything but getting back as soon as possible, yet the sight 
left an indelible impression on my mind. I had a bed in my mother's 
room, which opened out on a roofed piazza facing the east. It must have 
been during the warm weather for I was not wrapped up, and about 
nine o'clock, as my mother had not yet retired for the night. The 
family were assembled on a continuation of the piazza facing the north 
showing that from this direction these bodies had been first noticed as the 
motion of the earth brought them into view, consequently, I suppose, they 
were first seen in the northeast. When I arrived, every part of the 
sky was filled with these luminous bodies passing in every direction, of 
various colors, and far brighter than any fireworks. I have never seen 
any explanation of the phenomena, but the term "shooting stars" 
must have been incorrect. They could not have been meteoric, due to 
explosion and heating of solid material on entering our atmosphere, as 
through the action of gravity this material would have reached the earth 
and the destruction of life would have been great. It was before a full 
knowledge of the spectrum had been gained, so that there was no means 
of obtaining any knowledge as to the composition of these bodies. It is 
now known that the tail of a comet is formed by means of incandescent 
vapors or gases, so that it is not improbable that at that time the earth 
passed through such a mass, and the component parts became ignited on 
entering our atmosphere and were consumed before reaching the earth's 
surface. It is now held that Halley's comet on this occasion passed 
in close proximity to the earth, as it was expected to do in 1910. 

The negroes were terror-stricken and thought the end of the world 
had come, and in their fright would listen to no explanation. In every 
direction they could be heard shouting aloud to announce their conver- 
sion, others were praying aloud or singing hymns. I do not know how 
long the spectacle lasted as I soon got back to bed, but the negroes kept 
it up all night until sunrise, and they must have thought the whites were 
an impious set for having gone to bed before the outcome was certain. 

I was a great favorite with all the negroes, and they were glad to 
have me with them, and in one way and another I managed to pick up a 



^2 Incidents of my Life 

great deal of information from them. The negroes we had, all of whom 
were obtained by purchase, claimed they had always "lived with the 
quality," and they retained a remarkable recollection of the people 
they had served or seen. We had two negroes who were both over 
one hundred years of age and few of their race, at seventy years, were 
as active. Our head gardener, who had a remarkable knowledge of his 
business, had, when a boy of about fifteen, accompanied as a body- 
servant, an officer in the Virginia troops with the Braddock Expedition 
against Fort DuQuesne, which was undertaken in 1749, during the 
French war with England, and over eighty years before. This man 
gave me the clearest account I ever had, and the minutest detail I re- 
ceived from him has since been verified by my studies. Many of these 
details were of such a nature that he must have come into possession of 
them through hearing them discussed. Moreover, he was unable to 
read and therefore had only his own experience to draw upon. 

Our cook, who had been with my father before his marriage and who 
still held her position with others under her, had, when a young girl, 
been a house servant and nurse of the children of General Riedesel, who 
commanded the Hessian troops taken at the surrender of General 
Burgoyne in 1777. They were called the "Convention troops," and it 
had been agreed at the surrender that they were not to be used again in 
the war, and with other stipulations which were to be accepted by the 
English government before these troops could be exchanged. The 
English delayed action so long that these troops were sent to Virginia, 
near Charlottesville, where they were held in a cantonment for several 
years. The woman's detailed account of the family and of other particu- 
lars I have verified in after-life by means of the diary of Madame Riede- 
sel, the existence of which at the time was probably not known outside 
the circle of her immediate descendants, and the translation of which into 
English has been of comparatively recent date. After the crops had all 
been gathered in, the cider made, and the buildings and fences all put 
in good repair, the next great event was the corn shucking. The Indian 
corn, or maize as it is called abroad, would be pulled off the stalk with 
the dried covering or shock on. This would be hauled up from the 
fields and made into a long pile, so that the men could sit on top in a 
long row, back to back, and shuck ear after ear, which was tossed into 
a long pile in front, to be carried barrel after barrel to the corn-house 
built especially to keep the rats out. At this season it was generally 
cool in the evenings and, to give light, a large wood fire at some distance 
was one of the features, which the young negro boys had to look after 
so long as they could keep awake. It was also their business to roast 
sweet potatoes for the supper. Around the fire would be standing or 



Negro Music 23 

seated on the ground those who had become tired or were waiting their 
turn. On the large plantations there were hands enough to shuck the 
corn in the daytime, as part of the regular routine. But for smaller 
places it was the custom for the negroes of the neighborhood to be notified 
when there would be a corn shucking. They would then assemble at 
their own convenience after dark, and for their voluntary service they 
were sure of getting several good drinks of whiskey to stimulate the fun 
and good fellowship which was a feature, and of getting something special 
to eat as a supper, if the time of shucking was extended toward midnight, 
as was usually the case. 

Those standing at leisure around the fire would begin and in turn 
start up a song, often containing an impromptu verse with a humorous 
application to some one present, and the measure would be taken up by 
some other individual and passed to others from one end of the corn pile, 
along the whole line, down one side and up the other, with the wildest 
sounding cadence and harmony in the refrain. In the rendering of music, 
the bass, the tenor, and every part was clearly defined, and each kept his 
part as if trained to do so. But the peculiarity of the old negro music 
was that every one seemed to have a peculiar or individual note or sound, 
which, while its identity was preserved, was made to harmonize with all 
the others. This music fascinated me as a boy, as no other music ever 
did, and in after-life it seemed as if I had heard something incongruous 
with the time and surroundings. In later life, when I thought about the 
subject it seemed to me that this music might possibly have come down 
from some eastern civilization of ages ago, which had remained a heritage 
from the past, through countless generations of these people. 

Very few persons are now living who can recall having heard this 
music, or who noticed critically its unique features, which long before the 
outbreak of the Civil War showed signs of waning in popularity and is 
now quite extinct. The negroes themselves seem to have become ashamed 
of it, as if it was typical of the "field hands" on the plantations, who 
were regarded by the others as being the "low down " of the race. What 
is now known as negro music, or negro melodies, is simply a burlesque 
and a reflection of the London concert halls. The English and their 
imitators in this country, from the days of the Jim Crow songs of sixty 
or seventy years ago, have tried to Anglicize this music of the negroes, 
which they could neither understand nor appreciate, and they have 
succeeded. 

What I have attempted to describe is now a lost art and something 
which can never be revived. All the negroes of the South did not have 
this music, and it was chiefly heard in the States settled from Virginia, 
while in the English West India islands it seemed to be wanting. The 



24 



Incidents of my Life 



slaves, who represented many distinct negro tribes, had tastes and 
habits which were by no means uniform. It is now impossible to obtain 
any information regarding their original habits, beyond the fact that the 
usual place of shipment was from the mouth of the Congo River, which 
flows through a greater extent of country than any other river in the 
world. Many of these people on the plantations, generation after genera- 
tion, preserved their tribal peculiarities unchanged while living in the 
country before the building of the railroads. 

After singing a while, a number of the young men about the fire would 
spring up on to the corn pile, and with their feet would spread it out to 
keep a supply within reach of the shuckers. A barn door or some boards 
would be placed on top for the best shuffler to show what he could do with 
his heels, and while spreading the corn along the line the others would 
keep time with the banjo playing, by "beating Juba, " which consisted in 
slapping in time their thighs with their open hands. On these occasions 
I used to think as a boy that I was subjected to a great grievance when 
my nurse, having brought to an end her flirtations, would suddenly seize 
and drag me off to bed, while I demonstrated with my fists and feet that 
the move was not a voluntary one on my part. 

I can recall some very amusing persons living in our neighborhood, 
who were of great interest to me as a boy. It was the custom in Virginia 
that no one, but especially a woman, should ever lose one's former social 
standing in consequence of a reverse of fortune. Those who held on in 
the neighborhood were almost without exception the women, as the men 
soon disappeared to make a beginning elsewhere. 

I remember, with special interest, one forlorn spinster, as she caused 
me to exercise more self-denial than any other individual I have ever 
met. She was very tall and thin, and always seemed to wear the same 
faded lilac- tinted calico dress, with apparently but a single garment under 
it. She was evidently the possessor of a copy of The Virginia Almanac, 
the one standby at that time as the weather indicator for the majority 
of the people in the State. I am led to hazard this conjecture from the 
fact that her coming visit to my mother was duly announced several 
days in advance, and was al"ways made at the time of the new moon, 
but only during the warm weather. After the beginning of winter she 
was never seen, and she either hibernated or remained in bed to keep 
warm. 

The occurrence of these visits in the course of the moon, and the 
advantage of always keeping the butter crock in the north corner of the 
largest stone chimney in the house, were the only themes of conversation 
I am able to recall in connection with her. When her dissertation on 
these two subjects was exhausted, she then lapsed into a condition of 



Description of a Spinster's ''Get Up" 25 

profound meditation, until in response to some unknown prompting, she 
would suddenly terminate the visit as if she was certain she had forgotten 
to discharge some important duty at home, and which could no longer 
be deferred. Her "get up" consisted of a faded calico frock. Carpet 
slippers and white stockings in very warm weather were doubtful ad- 
juncts. But the piece de resistance was a black wig, which I always 
thought was made from the tail of a horse, and the whole was crowned 
by a high Spanish comb, which had no doubt rendered service in her 
family for a century at least. By some means she had lost an eye, and 
this feature and its loss were often a subject of conversation and debate 
with the negro boys. They held that it had been gouged out in a fight, 
the most natural explanation for them to hold. While I had my doubt as 
to the accuracy of the consensus, for she seemed to me to be rather a 
light weight for a "scrap, " I could not help holding her in rather higher 
respect owing to the possibility of such a contingency. From the back 
somewhere and over the ear, a lock of this horse hair was brought forward 
and was carefully curled up to fill the eye socket. So perfectly was this 
mass of hair held in place, that for years during my boyhood I wondered 
how this feat was accomplished. By eliminating all explanations that 
did not seem plausible, I finally became satisfied that a Itmip of shoe- 
maker's wax, placed at the bottom of the cavity, was utilized. On 
her arrival I was promptly at her side and maintained the position until 
her departure, with my eyes fixed on the supposed location of the shoe- 
maker's wax. But I resisted to the last the temptation to pull that lock 
out to solve the mystery, which remained after our acquaintance had 
ceased. 

From prehistoric times this good woman had been accustomed to 
give annually a state dinner, which every one invited attended out of 
respect to her traditional social position. With a garden and some 
pOTiltry about the house, the material for a dinner was at hand, and, the 
question of serving wine was simplified by the fact that all the people 
in authority about the University were in favor of total abstinence. 
I never heard that the students ever protested against this laudatory 
tendency of the community at large, and in fact, if the truth could be 
known, it is more probable that it met with their entire approval, as it 
left the more for their own consumption. 

As regards the state dinner the only difficulty was in providing the 
dessert, which would necessarily need some expenditure of ready money, 
and to overcome that, the good woman never failed to exercise success- 
fully her ingenuity. It was known that this scion of better times still 
owned a woman of uncertain age, who was a maid-of-all-work, although, 
through tradition, she was credited with being also the possessor of a 



26 



Incidents of my Life 



cook, but her existence always remained as much of a mystery as the 
loss of the mistress's eye. This dinner was always an affair long drawn 
out, without any incentive for haste, or for the showing of am" great 
degree of hilarity. At length the period arrived for serving the dessert, 
and this was always the turning point of the festive occasion. During a 
series of awkward pauses, when the charitable talked against time to 
lessen, if possible, the embarrassment of the situation, it was impossible 
to overlook the pantomime between the factotum and her mistress. 
At length, like the sudden passing of the sun from behind a cloud, all 
embarrassment was removed by a candid and audible recital on the 
part of the family retainer to the mistress, of the details as to how the 
big gobbler, — for it was necessary to establish his capacity for food — 
being tied to the leg of the kitchen table, ' ' done reached up his neck 
and eat all of the dessert up!" Of course every one was at once ready 
and prompt to acknowledge that it would take some time to get up 
another dessert. Moreover, each, if from no other incentive than polite- 
ness, was demonstrative, with some hesitation, it is true, in stating that 
in enjoying the dinner they had consumed so much that they were 
satisfied. All seemed to consider the matter a subject for congratulation 
in not being called upon to test their gastronomic powers to greater 
length, and thus the utmost harmony soon prevailed. So that, as a 
whole, the repeated mishap proved but a pleasant episode, and especially 
with those who had acted their parts on some previous occasion. My 
mother returned with a smile and to my grandmother, who probably 
had not been invited on that occasion, would say, with some by play, 
that I might not "catch on, " as the boys express it, " It was the gobbler 
this time. Mother, instead of the cat or gander. '' 

At a very early age the peculiar idea of honest}^ held by some of the 
negroes became known to me. We had one woman in the house as a 
chambermaid, who pocketed everything she could carry off. My mother 
would suddenly miss her bunch of keys, which she generally carried in a 
small basket while attending to her household duties, and she would call 
out to some one: "Oh, do go to Jane and get my keys." Jane took 
everything and if not called for within a week or ten days, she would 
have a clearance, and put everything back where she got it, and probably 
the next day carry them off again. Occasionally a negro would be found 
who was absolutely honest, and more so than many white servants in the 
same position, and nothing ever tempted such a one to be dishonest, but 
they were few in number. 

We had a good man of unusual intelligence, who could turn his hand 
to almost anything, but he would suddenly clear out, leaving any work 
he was engaged on and be gone sometimes for a week or more, off to the 



Negro Stones 27 

mountains. He was never punished, as my father valued his services so 
much, but when he returned he would seek out my father and silently 
report himself by touching his hat. He would then be off to his work, 
unless my father stopped him to give him a scolding for appearances, and 
this always mortified him more than if he had been punished. One day 
my father said: "Jacob, how do you live when you rim away. I sup- 
pose you carry off my chickens and everything else you want?" His 
answer was: " Oh, no, sir, I wood n't tetch for de world any of ourn's, but 
I associated more den anywhar else on Col. Lewis's plantation, as it was 
more convenient like to the mountains whar I was abiden. " He was 
perfectly truthful, for his idea of stealing was taking something from those 
at home by whom he would be trusted. It was impossible to make many 
negroes understand that it was as dishonest to take anything which did 
not belong to them, whether on our place or on the property of those with 
whom they had no connection. This doubtless was due to the existence 
of a surviving instinct connected with their uncivilized life, where title 
was settled by force. Sometimes their idea of honesty seemed based on 
a reward being due them for resisting temptation in not taking all that 
the opportunity afforded. 

My old friend and kinsman. Dr. George Tucker Harrison, of New 
York, was inimitable in telling negro stories. I use the term "was," 
as it has been many years since I last heard him, and I know from 
experience that advancing age does not improve one's forte in story- 
telling. But the substance of one of his stories was that an elderly 
negro preacher met a half -grown boy in whom he had some interest 
and said: "Look here, William, you is growen up, and 't is time you 
was settlin' down and gittin' religion. The boy's answer was: "Uncle 
Ben, what's de use gittin' religion, an't I gwine do jus' de same ting to- 
morro?" He was answered: "Yes, my boy, but you got to resis' tem- 
tasion." "Uncle Ben, you eber been tempted?" Uncle Ben's answer 
was: "Yes, mighty often, but I always resis' temtasion. Now las' week 
I was down dar at Mr. Brown's store lookin' for a par of high winter boots, 
dem dat comes up all over de leg. I was 'way back dar at the end of de 
store an' dey was no one lookin', kase I looked all round an' dey wont 
no one bout but Mr. Brown, an' he was busy down dar by de dough 
tellin' a lady somethin'. I had my carpet bag wid me, an' had a par of dem 
boots in my han, worf fifteen dollars, an' I could have puts dem in dat 
bag an' nobody wood of known it, but I resisted temtasion, an' reached 
over an' only took a cheap par of shoos, — dey wont worf two dollars an' 
a haf. Yes, William, you got to resis' temtasion!" 

The following story will explain itself. At the hour when pre- 
paring for bed and one often selected by the female sex for confidential 



28 Incidents of my Life 

communications, a negro maid said to her mistress: "Miss, I done got 
religion. " The answer was : "Mary, you ought to be ashamed of your- 
self, as it has not been a week ago since I am sure you took five dollars I 
had in the top drawer of that bureau, and how can you get religion, as 
you term it, when you have never been sorry for taking it, nor have you 
returned the money to show you repented?" The maid answered: 
"Yes, Miss, I know you done excused me for stealin' dat money, and I bin 
studin' 'bout it mighty hard. But do you tink I is gwine let dat little, jus' 
five dollars, even money, stan' 'tween me an' my God?" 

The students often caused the negroes to be dishonest, as they were 
fond of fried chicken suppers, and sometimes the students themselves 
could not resist temptation. Just before we moved to the farm, my 
father, who was always an early riser, on going out into his yard to 
look after his flowers, found a well-known student, who visited the family, 
asleep in the chicken house with his pillow-case filled with chickens. The 
young man had doubtless been drinking the night before and had fallen 
asleep. My father quietly turned the key and posted the cook. He 
was left locked up for twenty-four hours, with no other food or water but 
what was for the chickens, when the cook intentionally left the door un- 
locked. The whole community had been in the greatest state of excite- 
ment at his sudden disappearance, and when he rettuned to his room, 
in answer to the interrogations, he became so indignant that he could 
not resist the temptation of giving fvill vent to his feelings, but he never 
suspected my father had caught him. I know nothing of his after-history, 
and, being laughed at, it is not likely he ever robbed another hen-roost. 



i 



Chapter III 



Visit to my Uncle Henry Tucker's plantation in lower Virginia — Description of a private 
travelling coach — The form of wagon first used by the early Irish emigrants, who settled 
up in the mountainous country between Pennsylvania and South Carolina, and after- 
wards used to cross the plains to California in 1849 and later— Condition of the public 
roads in Virginia — No accommodation for travellers — Corduroy roads, how built — De- 
scription of camping out at night in the forest — Coach upset on entering the ferry-boat — 
My life saved by a negro nurse — Saving the horses and getting the coach out of the river 
— Long delay in consequence of accident — Description of the Tucker plantation, and 
management — The tobacco crop only taken to market— Mode of transportation — The 
character 'of the planter was generally elevated by the responsibility of his position, and 
seldom abused — Abolition of slavery considered — How Ephraim broke the pitcher — My 
uncle's neighbors — Col. Paul and Edward Carrington — Chief- Justice John Marshall — 
Aaron Burr's trial for treason — Mention of Blennerhassett — Both lived in advance of their 
views — Their action caused the Louisiana Territory purchase — Recollection of John 
Randolph — His want of respect to my grandmother — Judge St. George Tucker — Dr. 
Thomas Tudor Tucker — Randolph emancipated his negroes and divided his property 
among them — Not allowed to settle in Ohio — Their after-condition a sad one — Negroes 
in the South formerly taught to read and write — The first public school was in South 
Carolina for the negroes and not in New England for the whites, as claimed — "Nat" 
Turner's insurrection in Virginia. — The New England writers have falsified history by 
claiming too much for that section of the country. 




HE most eventful period of my early boyhood was a 
visit of six months, with my grandmother, to my 
Uncle Henry Tucker's plantation in lower Virginia, 
It was thought necessary that I should have a 
change of scene in consequence of the death of my 
brother, Tucker, whose loss I had felt greatly. 
This was before the days of railroads and there were 
but few stage coaches on any route in the South. Every man of means 
had a travelling coach for his family, and unless well advanced in life, 
and especially if he were alone, the journey was made on horseback, or by 
means of a single-seated sulky, as now used for trotting matches. 

My uncle had purchased from a friend in Lynchburg a travelling 
coach which had been made in England, and was drawn by four horses. 
The body of this conveyance was swung over five feet above the ground on 

29 



30 Incidents of my Life 



four iron uprights from the axles, and by means of thick leather springs, 
made of the thickest leather straps riveted together. To enter, it was 
necessary to let down six or seven iron steps, which were turned over onto 
the bottom under the middle seat when the door was closed. It had 
three seats. The front and back seat each accommodated two persons 
and a child, and the middle seat was large enough for three grown persons. 
Under each seat was fitted a large box which could be removed and packed 
as a trunk, while there were a number of deep pockets on the sides, and 
receptacles above and in every possible corner, into which an incredible 
amount of food and other material could be packed. There were large 
lamps on each side of the coachman's seat, and in each corner inside. 
The coachman's seat was high up above the top of the coach, and on the 
top a quantity of luggage could be stored protected under a leather 
cover. Beneath the coachman's seat was a large box for carrying food 
for the horses, a bucket for watering them, with an axe or two, an axle 
jack, and many other tools needed in case of a breakdown. Two men in 
addition to the coachman always accompanied, leading an extra horse. 
One was generally the butler, who cooked in case of having to camp out 
and who looked to the commissariat. The other helped in the care of the 
horses, and had to ride as a postilion on the lead, when the condition of 
the roads made it necessary. My uncle would then either drive or ride 
the extra horse. Virginia had at that time a turnpike running from the 
north to the south through the State, and another to the west, over 
which, for many years, passed from the State a steady stream of emigrants 
of Virginia birth. ^ 

From the two main thoroughfares branched off the so-called roads, 
which were during a large portion of the year but a passageway for 
one on horseback. The stumps .of the trees were left until they grad- 
ually rotted away or it became necessary to clear a new passage, when, 
with the remaining stumps to the right or left, the same difficulty was 
presented in the necessity for getting around a deep mud-hole. In the 
ordinary course of travel it was often necessary to delay for hours, while 

• The road through Rock Fish Gap over the motintains and by Staunton passed our 
place, and for years there was scarcely a night without one party or more stopping at a favorite 
camping ground within our bounds, where there were a stream and a good spring for watering. 
The great Conestoga wagon, as has been stated, was first used by the Irish emigrants from 
Pennsylvania and called afterwards a "land schooner," when used for crossing to California 
after the discovery of gold. It was the only mode of conveyance during many years in this 
country for women and children and for moving the household effects. Before the days of 
canals, railroads, and steamboats, this conveyance was the only freight carrier. Nearly a 
century and a half ago this large covered wagon, having divergent sides, with the bottom 
often twenty-five feet in length and drawn by four or six horses, was first used to transport 
the emigrants from Ireland who settled up all the country between the mountains from 
Pennsylvania to the French Broad River in North Carolina. 



Camping Out at Night In the Forest 31 

young sapling pine trees were being cut up into logs about eight feet in 
length, which were laid down side by side to form what was termed a 
corduroy road ; a very dangerous form of road, as the logs were not of 
equal diameter. Unless the vehicle was heavily loaded or without 
springs, those within were liable to be thrown against the top, and I have 
heard of several instances where, in a stage coach, death was thus caused 
by breaking the neck. 

At this time there were no accommodations even in name for travellers 
off the turnpikes, except at the houses of those who had made clearings 
along the route and were thus gradually cutting off the forests to obtain 
land enough for cultivation. According to the custom of the country 
a stranger was always welcome and free to stay as long as he wished. 
There were no newspapers published outside of the large towns, and these 
were weekly issues, with very small circulation. 

The interest of these people for obtaining news was very limited and 
the reported doings abroad of the Grand Mogul or some other worthy 
fully a year before, or a page or two reprinted from the encyclopaedia on 
some immaterial subject, were accepted without question and as evi- 
dence of the progressive tendency of the age. What was being done in 
, Congress and in the State Legislature interested the majority of the 
people, and the sojoiurner was generally able to supply the demand, and 
thus was assured of a cordial welcome. 

By turning down the back of the middle seat of the coach, and with 
cushions and a supply of blankets, which were always carried, three or 
four females could be made quite comfortable for a night's rest, when it 
was necessary to camp out. 

Under ordinary circumstances it would be a superfluous act to de- 
scribe a camping out of the present day, where so many are familiar with 
passing the night in the open air, but with almost every appliance and 
comfort of indoor life. At the time I am describing the surroundings 
were very different. After journeying all day without possibly having 
met a single person on the road, and when the stopping place for the 
night had been determined upon, the wilderness was so great that the 
nearest house might not be nearer than ten or fifteen miles. In many 
sections of the country the Indians were frequently troublesome, and 
there were many runaway negroes who lived in the woods by robbing 
travellers. We trusted to well-trained dogs to give warning, but often 
it was necessary to have some one awake and on guard all night. The 
food was of the simplest character and cooked in the most primitive 
manner. There were no rubber blankets nor tents in those days, and 
nothing but the bare ground to lie on, without shelter from the rain. 
Camping in those days was most primitive and with fewer comforts 



32 Incidents of my Life 

than would be in service for the bivouac of a body of soldiers on a forced 
march at the present day. And yet the health of all improved. As with 
the soldier in active service, no one took cold from lying out in the rain 
all night and leaving the clothing to gradually dry unchanged. When I 
was revising this part of my work my first impulse was to strike out this 
description of a night in the wilds. But the impressions are so vividly 
pictured after an interval of over seventy-three years, that I decided not 
to do so, as they may be of interest to many. 

Every few miles along the road were places with a spring of good 
water and under some large overhanging oak of the primitive forest, a 
level space which frequent use had kept clear for camping. To form a 
camp, a fire was first started, and this was easily done as there was at 
hand a supply of pine knots and lightwood from the old pine trees. A 
bucket of fresh water would be dipped up from the spring for drinking 
and making coffee, and the meal would be cooked, the horses fed, watered, 
groomed, tethered out, and bedded. After a little conversation, the 
women would be off to the coach, the men would light their pipes and 
gradually doze off for the night, wrapped up, head and heels, in a large 
home-made blanket and making use of a saddle as the best thing answer- 
ing the purpose of a pillow. All who were accustomed to camping out 
would be asleep in a few moments, but those who had no previous expe- 
rience found it well-nigh impossible to get to sleep readily. The variety 
of sounds heard was incredible when one is quiet and the sense of hearing 
intensified by the surroundings. In the South the monotonous call of 
the whippoorwill, the demon-like laugh of the large swamp owl, and the 
cry of the wild-cat always obtrude themselves on those who have not 
become accustomed to hearing them. In addition, almost every denizen 
of the forest was in quest of food during the greater portion of the night, 
or love-making, or settling some private grievances with other members 
of the animal kingdom, and each interest was accompanied with its own 
special sound. There would be suddenly a lull, and the bark of some 
watch-dog or of one astray would be heard apparently at an incredible 
distance, and before there had been time to form any idea as to the dis- 
tance, one was startled by the sudden fall of some dead limb, or of the 
tree itself, and the sense of hearing at length became so intensified that 
it seemed as if even the falling of a single leaf could be heard. With the 
burning out of the camp-fire the darkness seemed so impenetrable, that 
every sound became the more intensified and incongruous, as under the 
conditions a profound silence would be more in keeping. While camp- 
ing out at the present time, the stillness of the night, unless it be in 
the far West, is often as marked as the former pandemonium before the 
country was settled up. 



Coach Upset on Entering Ferry-Boat 33 

Every one in a party camping out has generally some special duty 
assigned, which has to be perfectly performed for the common good. 
At length each in turn was wrapped up and seeking recuperation from 
the fatigues of the previous day, and the safe keeping of the camp and 
its protection for the night was then left to the dogs. The stable dog 
at home was generally a bulldog and he always accompanied the coach- 
man as if to supervise whatever he might be doing, and from the assiduity 
with which he seemed to inspect everything done for the horses, he appar- 
ently rated his services as being most important. At the time when we 
made this journey, and for years before, the whole country had been 
infested with horse thieves, notwithstanding they were certain to suffer 
the penalty of being hung sooner or later. It was therefore necessary to 
have about the stables several reliable dogs who had been taught to give 
but little trust to strangers. The other dog was the pointer and a personal 
friend of the master, who generally carried his double-barrelled shotgun 
and frequently his rifle along with him, for which there was always a 
place along the sides or top of the coach. And in addition frequently 
a humble specimen of the dog species accompanied the others, but 
followed at a distance as if he realized his inferior rank, as the "coon" or 
"possum" dog of the stable boy. He was seldom seen about the camp 
until all was quiet, when he would seek the food his master always left 
for him somewhere. 

The crossing of a river on a flatboat was often a most dangerous 
undertaking, and particularly when getting a four-wheeled conveyance 
on board. On one. of these occasions I came very near being drowned. 
I was left alone in the coach as the road was very muddy, and the others 
walked. My uncle was on the box, fearing trouble with the off leader, 
a new horse he had had to pick up to replace one which had become lame 
after shoeing, and had to be left behind with his shoe off until he could 
be sent for. The bank was high and the road precipitous for about one 
hundred feet from the flatboat, which was moored stern on. Without 
any apparent reason the new horse on the lead shied just as he was 
entering the boat and with the impetus it was impossible to stop the 
coach in its progress down the slope. The leader went overboard, drag- 
ging with him the wheel-horse, and the coach turned over and partly 
sank. My nurse fortunately had followed close behind the coach, and I, 
standing on the back seat, was tallcing to her from the open coach-window 
at the back. For a negro, and especially of her sex, she was unusually 
quick-witted, and as soon as the leader fell in the water, she jumped up 
behind and dragged me out through the open window and jumped for the 
flatboat as the coach was going over. The two wheel-horses were left 
on the flatboat but were thrown down with their legs toward the middle 



54 Incidents of my Life 

of the boat. The coachman had gone on before so as to catch the heads 
of the leaders after they had entered the boat. He immediately got out 
his knife and cut the traces and the reins of the horses which were in the 
boat, these being in danger of being dragged overboard, as the carriage 
had not reached the bottom and was being carried away from the boat 
by the rapid current. The horses in the water were struggling and in 
great danger of being drowned, as they were dragged down by the carriage, 
so that only part of their heads were above water. My uncle, who was 
a good swimmer, got out his pocket-knife and by diving under the horses, 
at the risk of having his brains kicked out, managed to cut the traces 
of each horse on the side nearest the boat. This allowed the carriage to 
sink and the horses to get their heads above water ; then it became easy to 
cut the harness off and let the horses swim ashore. We stayed at a 
planter's house in the neighborhood for about ten days before the coach 
was dried out and we could get new harness from Lynchburg, which was 
within a few miles. After reaching Lynchburg we were detained there 
for a week longer, in making other repairs. We stayed at the house of a 
Mr. Brown, a relative of the first wife of Professor George Tucker, my 
grandmother's brother. Mrs. Tucker was a Miss Carter, and a near 
relative of General and Mrs. Washington. 

In this "cut across lots " I doubt, with the delay in repairing the roads, 
if we had averaged fifteen miles a day, but at length we reached our 
destination with sincere regret on my part, for I had enjoyed to the 
utmost every moment, including even my sleeping hours. 

My uncle, Mr. Henry Tucker, had about one thousand acres and 
several hundred negroes, and yet, as there was no means of transportation 
to market, he was unable to profit by the sale of anything raised on his 
place, except his tobacco. It was packed in the usual size hogshead, but 
with a section of what seemed an old pump log running through the top 
and bottom and projecting on each side. Through this ran an iron axle 
to which in front a yoke of oxen could be attached. The edges and mid- 
dle of each hogshead were surrounded with an iron tire, and on that the 
hogshead was rolled over and over in the same manner as a garden-roller 
is drawn over the surface of the ground. After the passage of fifty or 
more of these hogsheads along the road its condition must have been 
greatly improved. His crop of tobacco would thus be sent to Richmond 
to a commission merchant for sale, and in charge of a number of men who 
generally walked back as they accompanied the return of the wagons 
loaded with the supplies needed on the place for the year. Many of the 
oxen would be sold if possible, as well as some of the wagons which had 
been used to carry the feed for the men and oxen on the way to Richmond. 
A supply of salt, white and brown sugar, spirits, wines, spices, and sewing 



Management of Tucker Plantation 35 

materials, with some finery, would be brought back, and the journey 
required nearly a month, although Richmond was less than one hundred 
miles distant. 

Everything needed on the plantation was produced in the greatest 
abundance. There seemed to have been more than one hundred individ- 
uals who were specially employed as manufacturers, or mechanics. There 
were a water-mill for grinding flour, a saw-mill for cutting up the timber 
into boards, beams, scantlings, and any other form of lumber, so that 
any house could be built as needed. Consequently, there were carpen- 
ters, and blacksmiths who made the nails and everything needed in iron 
work; masons and brickmakers, painters, wagon makers, weavers and 
spinners, shoemakers, tanners, and hatmakers of coarse straw or worsted, 
in fact, some one could be found to turn his other hand to any job, and 
each had some one as an assistant who was being instructed. There were 
sheep enough to furnish all the wool needed, and all the cloth was made 
on the place to clothe every one, for my uncle wore homespun and his 
clothing was fitted as was the custom by a woman. Some flax and 
cotton were cultivated, and a coarse cloth from each was made, for sheeting, 
for shirts and other undergarments. Under any aunt's direction every- 
thing was cut out and made for the men and women. The place was 
self-sustaining in the production of everything, except what might be 
termed the luxuries of life, and it is astonishing how few these became 
when the process of elimination was limited by the necessity. There were 
quarters for the sick, and a physician living about ten miles away visited 
the place nearly every day, while my uncle from necessity had acquired 
a siifiicient knowledge to meet the needs of almost any ordinary case of 
emergency. At different points the children were left and cared for, 
while their mothers were at work, and within easy reach of those with 
young babies. My uncle was a magistrate, and with his surroundings he 
was from necessity more of an autocrat in his intercourse with those 
about him than any sovereign abroad could be, and this power was 
exercised at that time by almost every planter. With the weakness of 
human nature it was to the credit of the Southern planter that this power 
was rarely abused, as I know from personal observation. The sense of 
responsibility was fully developed, and the effect was more to elevate the 
character than to lower the standard. Yet it is contrary to nature that 
so few men, comparatively, should ever have the power of domination 
over so many. As a people, we have cause to rejoice for all time that 
slavery has been blotted out, and that we are free in consequence, not- 
withstanding that no political move was ever effected in any country at so 
great a sacrifice. 

I have impressed on my mind the recollection of a negro boy named 



36 Incidents of my Life 

Ephraim, who was my playmate and who could always beat me playing 
marbles. He was a little older than I, and was employed for odd services 
about the house. Ephraim was not an expert in the handling of china 
or glassware. I can recall his appearance after having been sent to the 
spring for a pitcher of fresh water before dinner. He returned with the 
handle of the pitcher in his hand. His mistress asked: "How did you 
manage to break another pitcher?" He answered: "You see, Miss, I 
wa'n't doin' nothin', I was jus' gwine to de spring for dat water, and de 
groun' done riz up and knocked de pitcher out my han' ! " Poor Ephraim 
was not a quick thinker and he was "jus' gwine long an' wa'n't think- 
in' 'bout nothin'," which was with him a natural condition, when he 
"stumped" his toe so that Ephraim went to the ground instead of it 
having "riz up." This I take to be the natural explanation, and sug- 
gest it in place of the one given by him. 

Every day of my stay on my uncle's place was one of enjoyment and 
profit. There was nothing going on that I did not investigate to the 
fullest extent within my power, and I gained a practical l-cnowledge of 
more things than many obtain in a lifetime. What I learned then as a 
young boy, in the mechanical line alone, and was able afterward to enlarge 
by practice, has proved of practical value to me through life. 

My uncle, Mr. Tucker, had many distinguished neighbors, all of whom 
had been more or less in public life. I can recall sons of Colonel Paul 
Carrington, who had served in the Revolution as a distinguished cavalry 
officer and a brother of Colonel Edward Carrington. I recall seeing 
John Marshall, then the Chief -Justice of the Supreme Court at Washing- 
ton, and who presided at the trial of Aaron Burr for treason. Events 
have shown that both Burr and Blennerhassett lived before their time, 
in claiming the necessity for acquiring the Mississippi River and adjacent 
territory for the United States. Although acquitted. Burr Hved for the 
remainder of his life under a cloud and was denounced as a traitor to the 
best interests of his country. But this trial forced the purchase 
of Louisiana Territory from France during Jefferson's Administration, 
and in opposition to the greater portion of those who formed the 
population of the United States, and believed that the western boun- 
dary of the country, excepting for Kentucky, would be the Alleghany 
Mountains. 

I once saw John Randolph, who was a near neighbor, but not on 
visiting terms with any one. He was the stepson of Judge St. George 
Tucker, a native of Bermuda, and a brother of my great grandfather. 
He came, as I have stated, to this country with his brother Thomas 
Tudor Tucker, at the beginning of the Revolution, and both served 
during the war. Washington in his first Administration, appointed 



Recollection of John Randolph 37 

Thomas Tudor Tucker treasurer of the United States, which office he 
held until his death in 1 829. 

John Randolph had been sent as a boy to Bermuda to school and was 
prepared for Columbia, then King's College in New York. He was a 
constant companion of my grandfather while in Bermuda, and I possess 
several of his letters to his friend after his return and while in college. 
In later life Randolph became queer, if not insane, and would have 
nothing to do with any of his relatives or connections. 

I recall one afternoon I was out driving with my grandmother Tucker 
in the open barouche, my uncle holding the reins. As we approached the 
entrance to Randolph's place, my uncle turned to his mother and said: 
"Now you will have the opportunity of seeing if Randolph has changed 
since he was a boy." Randolph had a carriage which seemed to be a 
carryall with glass sides and was drawn by four horses, with a postilion 
on the wheel-horse and leader. He came out to the highway on a run and 
was approaching us. My uncle had turned out to one side to give him 
the road, when Randolph stuck his face into his hat and, after passing us, 
looked back and wagged his protruding tongue. This want of respect 
to my grandmother, whom every one treated with the greatest deference, 
roused my indignation, but it was doubtless the means of impressing the 
circumstance on my memory. I believe he was then on his way to 
Washington to accept the position of Minister to Russia, but died in 
Philadelphia. This man had many eccentricities which the people bore 
with, on account of his long service to the State, and .which they would 
have tolerated in no other man. It was said he always had a case of 
pistols open on the front seat before him ; and as an inducement to turn 
out, he never hesitated to shoot at the driver or horses in any vehicle in 
front of him, which he thought was likely to obstruct his passage in any 
way. The physician he employed lived near Fredericksburg, and Ran- 
dolph was constantly in the habit of sending for him so that the messenger 
should deliver the summons at an hour which necessitated the doctor 
being in the saddle all night. On his arrival about daylight, Randolph 
would send word he did not wish to see him and only sent to make sure 
that he would come in case of need. My uncle knew the physician and 
he would come to rest at our house after his journey. 

Randolph was literally the boss of the country for many years and 
held his position with a strong hand. My uncle gave his mother, in 
my presence, an account of a political conference caUed by Mr. Randolph 
to meet at his house, and as the hour designated was the usual one for 
dinner, each gentleman attending took it for granted that dinner would be 
provided. About a dozen persons assembled and on arriving each was 
met at the door and stopped by Randolph's body-servant, who insisted, 



38 Incidents of my Life 

in accordance with his instructions, that each one should remove his 
shoes or boots before entering the house. They were then ushered 
into the dining-room and each assigned a chair around a long dining- 
table. Soon they were joined by Randolph, who was unusually affable. 
He took his seat at the head of the table and soon a tray containing a 
bowl of soup was placed before him, of which Randolph partook, and 
when finished called to have it removed. All the time, as my tmcle 
expressed it, "with the devil in his eye" he doubtless was enjoying the 
occasion and making himself most agreeable. At length all were dis- 
missed with "You can go now, " as Randolph proceeded to his library and 
closed the door. 

This man left a will freeing all his slaves, and directing that the 
proceeds from the sale of his land and house and other property be used 
for settling all his negroes in some county in Ohio which was then a hot- 
bed of abolitionists, who devoted freely both their time and money to the 
transit of fugitive slaves from the South to Canada. In accordance 
with the custom of the day, to provide for the comfort of "the traveller 
on his way" Randolph's will directed that a dinner should be provided 
and the table set for four persons every day at a certain hour — this to be 
continued until the settlement of his estate. During some twelve years, 
from the delay in being unable to settle the estate, this dinner was 
regularly provided, as if Randolph was still in the flesh. 

The executors purchased a large tract of land in Ohio and proceeded 
to build houses and settle 'each negro family; but the doughty friends 
of the negro race already there protested, and drove the Virginians out. 
They were brought back to Randolph's plantation where they continued 
to live for years. Some went to Liberia, but the greater portion died off 
from want and proper care, and eventually the whole estate frittered 
away. Randolph's body-servant was said to have been a classical scholar 
and as accomplished as his master, having been educated by him and 
always accompanying him in his travels abroad. I have heard that this 
man by special legislation was allowed to become a "ward" of the State 
of Virginia; and for years his only occupation was to sun himself about 
the Capitol at Richmond and to keep up his extensive acquaintance 
among all the prominent men of the State. 

The condition of society throughout the South, but particularly in 
Virginia, was a remarkable one during the early portion of the last cen- 
tury. Society may be said to have been divided between the majority, 
who were in dense ignorance, and the educated minority, among whom 
the degree of cultivation was above the average. This ignorance was 
not in accord with the wish of the Southern people, however, who had 
formerly educated the negroes to a degree sufficient to meet the re- 



Nat Turner's Insurrection 39 

quirements of their station in life. It was the general custom to teach 
them to read and write until the extended influence and interference on 
the part of the aboHtionists of the North, by urging the negroes to in- 
surrection, compelled the Southern people, for their own protection, to 
prohibit their education, as the only means of cutting off their communi- 
cation with the abolitionists. 

Shortly after my birth, Nat Turner, a negro living, I think, about 
Smithfield, in lower Virginia, was induced to organize an outbreak which 
was to be extended throughout the South. The authorities fortunately 
obtained some information as to the move and began an investigation, 
but forced a premature outbreak. Turner caused a sudden uprising 
one night, in an unexpected quarter, and a number of persons, ^chiefly 
women and children, were murdered. Turner was in hiding for months 
before he was taken prisoner and hanged, during which period a reign of 
terror existed, as it was impossible to obtain any accurate information 
as to the extent of the dissatisfaction. Unfortunatley, those of New 
England who have written the early history of our country were in 
sympathy and make no reference to the insurrection. In my library, 
chiefly one for reference, I have been unable to find any historical refer- 
ence to one of the most alarming episodes in the history of the country, 
and one which may be claimed to have been the first step in the course 
which culminated in the Civil War. Turner was educated, and in his 
correspondence were found letters implicating many prominent people 
in the New England States, who were abolitionists. 

Many years ago I wrote an article termed "Some Popular Myths in 
American History" which was declined for publication by several of the 
monthly periodicals, on the ground that if true there was no use at this 
late period in upsetting what had been so long accepted as true. This 
paper was finally pubHshed in The Magazine of History, etc., N. Y., Feb., 
1905. I was prompted to write this article to show how the New England 
writers, who have as a rule written our histories, have claimed more than 
was due their section and have neglected to a great extent doing justice 
to other portions of the country. 

As a student for many years of American history, I am free to express 
my opinion that the truthful history of this country has yet to be written. 
This conviction is based on the study of more original material, probably, 
than any other private individual, much of which constituted a portion 
of the "Emmet Collection" now in the Lenox Library, New York. 
With the exception of the perversion of Irish history by English 
writers, no other country has suffered to a greater extent than we have 
from wilful misrepresentation of the truth in not giving credit to 
other sections, and particularly in exaggerating the importance of all 



40 Incidents of my Life 

events occurring in New England, and the deeds of the New England 
people. 

In the article, "Some Popular Myths of American History' ' was repro- 
duced a page from a file of the Charleston Gazette for 1743, at one time 
a part of the "Emmet Collection," and now in the Lenox Library. This 
reproduction was to show in facsimile the vouched-for account, closed 
Dec. 12, 1743, for building the second negro public-school house in 
Charleston, South Carolina, where the negro children were compelled 
to go to school until the age of twelve years. 

I have never been able to ascertain at what time the first public 
school for negroes was built. 

It has always been claimed that the public-school system originated 
in New England. I state: "The famous Latin School of Boston, which 
is so often held up to our admiration as the beginning of the public- 
school system of the country, was chiefly noted for its Latin covirse, and 
each scholar paid about five dollars a term." The fact is, for white 
children there were no free schools in the present acceptation of the 
term, in New England or elsewhere, until about the close of the eighteenth 
centtiry. Such is history! 



Chapter IV 



Many distinguished persons lived in the vicinity of the University of Virginia — Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, Mrs. Madison, Wm. C. Rives, the Minister to Paris, Andrew Steven- 
son, Minister to London, Edward Coles, Governor of the Northwest Territory, Meri- 
wether Lewis, Comm. Matthew F. Maury, U. S. N. — Secretary of the Navy, Gilmer, and 
Secretary of State, Upshur were both killed by the bursting of the "peacemaker" on 
the U. S. war vessel Princeton — Wm. Wirt, the Walkers, Pages, Riveses, Carters, Moons, 
Randolphs, Lewises, and many other noted families lived in the neighborhood — Edgar 
Allan Poe, a student at the University — John R. Thompson, the founder and editor of 
the Southern Literary Messenger — The Blackwood' s Magazine of the South — Anecdote of 
the late Duke of Westminster — The professors of the University were all noted men — 
Burning of the Richmond theatre — Great loss of life due to the doors opening inward — 
Mr. George Tucker's description of the fire and his escape — A remarkable entertainment 
given by the new professor of German — Visit to New York — Journey made chiefly by 
stage-coach: and requiring nearly a week — Description of the first railroad in Virginia — 
Steamboat from Aquia Creek to Washington — Description of the accommodation at 
that time for making the toilet after travelling all night, and before the use of sleeping 
cars — Chained tooth-brushes for the use of the public — Neglect of the teeth, generally, 
seventy years ago — The need produced the best dentists in the world — The tin basins 
from the wash-room used for serving soup in the dining-room — Visit to Washington City — 
Description of the town and hotel — The proprietor and his official dress described — The 
etiquette observed at the hotel — Hotel court-yard described with its many attractions — 
The want of proper sanitary measures caused an epidemic of typhoid fever many years 
after from the drinking water at the National Hotel, which occupied the site of the old 
building — Sightseeing in Washington — The prominent members of Congress and of the 
Senate at that time pointed out — Heard most of them speak on the question of slavery — 
John Quincy Adams then a member of Congress. 



HAVE devoted much time to the study of the men 
and affairs of this country, and have often been 
surprised to find how large a number I have known 
of those Hving within my own time, and with how 
many of the past I have become familiar by study, 
or from the recital of others. 

The number of distinguished persons living 
within a radius of a day's journey of the University of Virginia, together 
with those who visited it, from time to time, was remarkable. Many 
of these were constantly at my father's house, or I have had them pointed 

41 • 




42 Incidents of my Life 

out to me while passing. Mr. Jefferson I never saw, for he died a short 
time before my birth, but during my early life his influence was as much 
felt as if he still lived. Ex-President Monroe lived in a house which 
is now within the limits of the University, but I do not recollect him, 
although I may have seen him, as he was often at my father's house, 
and he did not die until late in 1831. Mr. Madison lived in an adjoining 
county and was frequently at the University. All three of these gentle- 
men were personal friends of my father and took an active part in the 
affairs of the University. Mrs. Madison died some time after her 
husband, and she was a warm friend of my mother. Shortly before her 
death, she gave my mother a small cream pitcher of Irish cut-glass, 
which was a wedding present from Mr. Madison about 1783. It was 
presented to my mother with the statement that it had been in use daily 
since Mrs. Madison received it, and that she valued it more than anything 
else she possessed ; that she was consoled in the parting by the satisfaction 
that it would go into the keeping of one very dear to her. I have cared 
for it with great interest on account of its association, and. its identity 
as a specimen of Irish cut-glass. ' 

Mrs. Madison was one of the most remarkable women this country 
has ever produced, and no one ever held so brilliant a position in social 
life as she did during her husband's long public service. 

William C. Rives, who lived in the neighborhood, was in public 
service during the greater portion of a long life, and for years was the U. S. 
Minister to Paris. In the same neighborhood, near Monticello, lived 
Mr. Andrew Stevenson, who was also long in public life and a noted 
Minister to the English Court. Beyond his plantation resided Edward 
Coles, an early Governor of the Northwest Territory. He afterward 
resided in Philadelphia, but I saw him on his visits to Virginia. Near, 
to the east of Monticello, and near the foot of the mountain, stood the 
house in which Meriwether Lewis was born and lived, who commanded 
with George Rogers Clark the expedition sent out by Mr. Jefferson during 
his Administration across the continent, a journey which had never been 
performed except by some of the early Jesuit missionaries from Canada. 
The Carters were neighbors, and well to the north were the Walkers, 
Pages, the Moons, and Randolphs. To the south, among the other 
families, lived the Maurys. The most distinguished of the name was 
Commander Matthew F. Maury, U. S. N., a man for whose talents and 
attainments I had the greatest admiration. He was at one period 

' Before the Revolution and for some time after, Ireland supplied all the glassware used 
in this country, and it was considered of the best quality made anywhere! In time, English 
legislation destroyed this and every other Irish industry, with the object of encouraging 
home manufacture. 



Students at the University 43 

probably better known to the scientific world than any one else in the 
country. He had charge for many years of the hydrographic office in 
Washington, and wrote that wonderful work, Physical Geography of the 
Sea, an evidence of his profound research, and by means of which the 
voyage to China, for a sailing vessel, was shortened six weeks. 

To the west lived the Gilmers, one of whom, Thomas W. Gilmer, 
as Secretary of the Navy in 1844, with Secretary of State, Abel P. Upshur 
of Virginia, and many others, were killed on the Government war vessel 
Princeton near Washington from the bursting of a newly invented cannon 
by Commander Stockton, and called the "peacemaker." The Lewis 
and Woods families were neighbors, as well as the distinguished writer 
and statesman William Wirt; there were also many other families I 
cannot now recall. 

Every one of these families had supplied one member or more for the 
public service, and each in turn played his part, but now forgotten and 
unknown to fame. 

In afterlife I have recalled the names and personal appearance of 
many of the students who were at the University. I can recollect Edgar 
Allan Poe's dormitory, but I have no recollection of his appearance. I 
knew by sight as a boy, and in after-life as an intimate friend, John R. 
Thompson, who was a few years my senior. He was a friend of Poe and 
both were at the University, but they could not have been fellow students 
on account of the difference in their ages. Thompson was a remarkable 
man of letters, who in 1847, became the editor of the Southern Literary 
Messenger, at Richmond. During his connection and until it ceased to be 
published at the beginning of the Civil War, he gave this journal a literary 
reputation equahed to that held by Blackwood's Magazine in its best days. 
During the Civil War he was stationed in London as a diplomatic agent 
of the Confederate Government. At the end of the war he reached New 
York in reduced circumstances, and I was glad to be able to introduce 
him to some friends who procured for him the position of literary editor 
for the New York Evening Post. His great literary talent established 
so high a standard in this department of the paper that his influence has 
remained to the present day. I had the privilege of knowing him as a 
warm personal friend for years and until his death. The last time he 
dined with me is recalled by his mentioning an anecdote of the Duke of 
Westminster, which placed me some time after in a disagreeable position 
by repeating it. Mr. Thompson formed the acquaintance of a clergy- 
man in London who had charge of the parish where the Duke and his 
family attended, and which was one within his gift. Westminster was 
then considered the wealthiest man in London, as he owned the greater 
portion of the land now covered by modern London. This clergyman 



44 Incidents of my Life 

had held his position for over twenty -five years, and during that time 
had christened, married, and buried all the family needing his services. 
Finally, he had a call somewhere else at a much larger salary ; he consulted 
the noble lord as to the advisability of accepting it. He was advised to 
do so, and as he was going out, Westminster told him to call just before 
leaving, as he would like to give him something he would find useful. 
The clergyman called and in a most impressive manner became the 
recipient of quite a large package, which he thought might contain bank- 
notes or some securities. When the package was opened, it contained 
the visiting cards the clerg^^man had left at the house during all the years 
when calling on his patron and family. 

I repeated this story at a large private dinner in New York, where it was 
not considered "the thing" to introduce people, and the answer of my 
neighbor was ' ' Yes, quite so, my grandfather was always considered nigh ! " 

The number of students known to me, who were in public service or 
who served in the Confederate or United States Army during the Civil 
War, is beyond my recollection, unless their existence was revived by 
some individual circumstance connected with them. 

The professors of the University were a remarkable body of men, as 
each individual attained during his service a personal reputation beyond 
the average usually gained by those who form a class too hard-worked 
to be known, as a rule, beyond their local influence. 

Doctor Dunglison, from his reputation already established as a writer, 
before leaving the University had a more extended reputation than any 
other member of the medical profession in the country. Bonnycastle 
as a mathematician, had a world-wide reputation. Professors Long and 
Keyes were well known in their especial branches, and returned to 
England to fill chairs in the University of Oxford, to which they had 
been appointed in consequence of their reputation established at the 
University of Virginia. 

Mr. George Tucker, the Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political 
Economy, was a prolific writer and the author of books on a diversity 
of subjects, as well as several novels, which were well appreciated in 
their day. He wrote the best life of Jefferson, who was a personal friend 
for many years. His History of the United States is well known to the 
student as the most reliable authority for the period from the beginning 
of the Revolution to 1840. He came to this country from Bermuda at 
an early age, and was personally acquainted with many who took part 
in the Revolution, and was himself in public life for many years during 
the early part of the nineteenth century. He married a Miss Carter 
of Fredericksburg, Virginia, a near relative of Washington. As a boy I 
was particularly interested as to the cause of a scar on his forehead, which 



Burning of Richmond Theatre 45 

sometimes, when he was excited, became m.ore conspicuous. In answer 
to a question my investigating spirit had prompted, he told me the 
circumstances attending its occurrence. While a member of the Virginia 
Legislatiu-e, and on some special occasion in the Richmond Theatre, 
on which it was unusually crowded, he was present when it was burned 
in December, 1811. The Governor of the State, with many prominent 
people, and nearly all the women in the audience, were burned to death. 
It was the first and most disastrous calamity of the kind which had ever 
occurred. The outer do.ors, which all opened inward, were unfortunately 
closed as it was during the cold weather; and before they could be opened, 
on the breaking out of the fire, the pressure of the people in their effort 
to escape closed them. In consequence of the loss of life in this fire, im- 
mediate action throughout the civilized world was taken to ensure the 
opening outward of every door of exit in all buildings used for assemblage. 
Mr. Tucker was in the second balcony or tier and the fire spread with 
such rapidity that a portion of a burning beam from the roof fell and 
struck him at an angle on the forehead, knocking him out of an open 
window. He was fortunate in sustaining no other injury. While Mr. 
Tucker was a member of Congress, he became an authority on all ques- 
tions of finance, and his work on Money and Banks was the authority 
at one time, but is now unknown. 

Professor Blattermann, a German, was a noted teacher of modern 
languages and one of the last of the original professors to retire. Un- 
fortunately with advancing age his temper did not improve, and he was 
finally obliged to resign for beating his poor old wife. He was succeeded 
by a countryman unknown to the public at large, but undoubtedly a 
learned man, or he would never have offered the position. 

It was said that the professor had recently married, from gratitude, 
a servant and countrywoman somewhere in the interior of Pennsylvania, 
who had been kind to him during an illness in some country hotel. The 
couple seemed very simple-minded, and after their arrival, having been 
called upon by everybody connected with the University, they were 
prompted to show their gratitude by giving an entertainment. As 
neither had a fiuent knowledge of the English language, they decided 
upon a novel plan for amusing their guests. Alongside of a large packing 
case, one placed on each side of the entrance, the host and hostess took 
their position, and as a guest presented himself or herself, the choice was 
given of a toy. It was evident they wished due consideration should 
be given by each one to so important a feature, on which was to rest the 
entertainment of the evening. Before each individual entered the recep- 
tion room there was held up for their mature consideration the choice 
between the pushing up of a monkey on a stick until his tail assumed the 



46 Incidents of my Life 

position of a lightning rod, or the holding by a string of a clown in one 
hand, and with the other making intermitting traction on another string, 
until it broke from the lower portion of the body, which jerking effort 
was expected to cause the arms to suddenly go out and the legs to dance. 
Whenever a guest exhibited any surprise it was attributed to ignorance, 
and with the utmost good nature he or she was fully instructed in the 
mechanism, while the others were kept waiting in line at the risk of 
buttons, hooks, and eyes. To the mutual satisfaction of all parties, the 
entertainment, contrary to the usual custom, soon came to an end, 
and it is said, for there are always ill-natured people, that the affair was a 
ridiculous one ! 

The poor woman was without education and she must have had a 
dull life of it. Married life, at least, proved a failure with her as well as 
trying to hold a social position, so that finally she vented her energies by 
whipping her husband, who was a little man. Frequently, in the middle 
of the night, she would put him outside of the house and lock him out 
until morning. 

Old Blattermann was greatly pleased with the situation and he would 
say to his friends : " I beat my wife and now de wife beat the leetle man. 
Vut de differonce?" In a short time this ill-mated couple disappeared 
for parts unknown. 

The chief occasion of the year, after the closing of the session, was the 
visit of my father and mother to the family in New York. I generally 
accompanied them, while my sister, who was much younger, remained 
behind to pass the summer with her grandmother, who enjoyed more 
the quiet at home. A trip to New York was then a serious undertaking, 
requiring five or six days by stage-coach and often a portion of each 
night, if the roads were heavy. The baggage was sometimes lost from 
the boot behind the stage-coach, as happened once to us. There was 
always danger of this whenever there was a long hill. As the coach was 
slowly moving up the ascent, the robber would slip out from among the 
bushes on the roadside and cut the straps holding down the leather 
covering. Then one trunk after another would drop off. A dark night 
was the favorite time, especially if it should be raining, as the coach 
would be shut up and the passengers dozing. In the Wilderness, near 
Fredericksburg, Va., was the most frequent place for this robbery; a 
region made afterward a great battlefield during the Civil War. I recol- 
lect some young ladies from Fredericksburg paid us a visit and they lost 
their whole outfit in the Wilderness, so that it was necessary on their 
arrival to borrow from all the ladies in the neighborhood, until they 
could again supply themselves. 

Shortly after my first trip North, the distance was shortened a day 



Travelling by Steam and Rail 47 

or two by the aid of a steamboat from Aquia Creek, near Fredericksburg 
to Washington, then by a tram- way, which was afterward the raihoad 
from Washington to Baltimore, then by a stage-coach, and from Wilming- 
ton, Delaware, to Philadelphia by steamboat. I recollect, at first, the 
stage route from Philadelphia through New Jersey was to Hoboken, but 
afterwards the trip was shortened by rail from Camden to Perth Amboy, 
and from there by steamboat to New York. I do not remember which 
route between Philadelphia and New York was built first : the one from 
Camden to Amboy, or by steamboat up the Delaware to near Burlington, 
New Jersey, and then by rail to Jersey City. In recent years, when one 
of my sons as a student would be returning to the University of Virginia, 
the trip could be accomplished in as many hours as days were necessary 
when I first made the trip. 

The railroad from Richmond to Aquia Creek was the first one I 
ever travelled on. At first it only extended to Fredericksburg, and stage- 
coaches were used to the steamboat at the creek, or over the bridge to 
Washington. I think the train seldom made more than twelve or four- 
teen miles an hour. The engines, with no protection for the engineer, 
seemed to me at that time to be too small and light, and to-day one of 
those engines, which were then considered a marvel, could be stored 
inside of one of the large mountain-climbers of the present. 

When an early start was made, or at night, the train would often 
come to a standstill if the track was covered by a heavy dew, unless a 
negro walked on each side of the cowcatcher and sprinkled sand on the 
rail. This feature was conducive to a better acquaintance among the 
passengers, as they frequently got out and walked alongside of the train 
until the sun had dried the track. At this period of our development 
no one was in a hurry, and no time was ever wasted in speculation as to 
when one's destination would be reached. One train a day each way 
carried all the passengers and freight on a single track, and it was con- 
sidered no hardship to wait at the turnout all day until the other train 
came along, and there were fewer cases then of heart disease and sudden 
death. 

The present T rail is comparatively a modern invention. The first 
rail was a long, narrow strip of iron about half an inch thick, which was 
fastened down on a wboden strip and this was spiked to the cross-ties. 
Until the present T rail came into use, it was impossible to make any 
allowance for the expansion of the thin rail from the heat of the sun. 
Frequently, when the projecting end was struck by the wheel and with 
the spikes lifted by the expansion, the end of the rail would pass over 
the wheel and through the floor of the car, ripping it up and killing every 
one in its course, until the train could be stopped. This was not an 



48 Incidents of my Life 

infrequent accident, called a "snake head, " and it was impossible to tell 
in what direction it would go after entering the car. 

The boat at Aquia Creek was generally reached just before break- 
fast, and then, after sitting up all night in the cars, every one made an 
effort to get "washed off" for the day. This important performance 
was accomplished by the men in a narrow room running across the boat 
at the stern, and open at each end. There were several piles of tinned 
basins from which the contents when last used had been emptied over- 
board, without any further attention, and consequently they were always 
soapy and not as lustrous as when purchased. There was a barrel open 
at the top filled with water, and a dipper fastened to the wall by a short 
rope. There was also a roller-towel, at the door, which had to answer for 
all, and several cakes of soap w^hich were handed from one person to 
another. As an evidence of advancing civilization, there appeared in 
time a chained tooth-brush, handy to the barrel and the dipper, and after 
the teeth had been cleaned, the choice was given of emptying the con- 
tents of the dipper into the barrel, or on to the floor. Fortunately, the 
steamboat tooth-brush was not often used, as the greater portion of the 
people of the country never used one at home. 

Seventy years ago and previous to that time, we were the most 
careless of all civilized people in caring for the teeth and most negHgent 
with children. When I was at boarding-school, I can recall very few- 
other boys who had a tooth-brush, and while I was indifferent as a yotmg- 
ster about washing my face, I never neglected my teeth, the importance 
of which had been impressed on me as soon as I could care for myself. 
The condition of the teeth among the w^hite people of this cotmtry finally 
produced the best dentists in the world. As a boy I woiild not have 
noticed that I was probably the only male on the train with a tooth-brush, 
for I always carried it with me when travelling. To this care, at over 
eighty-two years of age, I am better equipped by nature than most persons 
are at the age of fifty, and I believe my life has been prolonged many 
years in consequence. 

A chained brush and comb fastened to the door-frame on each side, 
with a looking-glass about six inches square nailed to the wall, 
completed the outfit for the travelHng public by boat, stage route, or 
rail, until the introduction of the Pullman cars. I never saw but in one 
other instance a chained tooth-brush for public use, and that was in a 
private house, years after, in the city of New York, to which I will again 
refer. 

It would seem as if the basins were sometimes otherwise utilized for 
the travelling public. One of my aunts became a convert to the hydro- 
pathic system, as she had been greatly benefited, and wished that I 



Visit to Washington City 49 

shoiuld look into the practice. As I had begun the study of medicine, 
I spent several weeks in a large water cure establishment at Brattle- 
boro, Vermont, during the summer of 1846. One day I made a trip to 
Bellows Falls on the railroad between New Haven and Montreal. As I 
had stayed at the hotel over the day, I was not in the rush caused by the 
crowd which had arrived a short time before, and which was to be 
served with dinner. There was a delay and I walked to the end of the 
piazza near the kitchen, to find out when dinner would be ready. As I 
passed the open window I heard the proprietor come in to learn the cause 
of the delay, and he was answered: "You see, there were so many to be 
'washed off' that we could n't get the basins sooner to serve the soup!" 
When I entered the dining-room and saw a number of not over-bright 
tinned basins filled with soup, I did not take any. 

My father always stopped overnight in Washington to rest and 
often for a day, in addition, as he seemed to have many friends living 
there, who must have been in public life. The place is associated in my 
memory as a boy with many pleasant recollections, for there seemed to 
be so much to be seen there, and what I could overhear as the subject of 
conversation was generally of interest to me. 

The town did not seem a large one, and only consisted of one long, 
unpaved street, dusty to an unusual degree. 

At that time most of the people living there were ofhce-holders, and 
in the middle of the day when they must have been at work, there was 
rarely any one in the street. When we arrived it would have seemed 
deserted but for the hogs and a number of contemplative cows. The 
heat was excessive, as we found, day and night, and the flies and mos- 
quitoes were countless. But the hotel was a feature to me, as well as I 
can recall it, and I enjoyed greatly what I could see and hear there. 

If the hotel made an impression on me, however, the proprietor made 
a deeper one. As I watched the arrival and departure of the stage- 
coaches, he seemed always at hand to welcome the new arrivals and to 
wish good speed to the parting guest. If the guest was leaving alone on 
horseback, a servant would often bring what the Irish called deoc an 
dorais, a door drink or stirrup-cup, as an evidence, on the part of the 
proprietor, of his great consideration. His official "get up" was a blue 
dress-coat with brass buttons and a very high collar, a buff-colored vest, 
black trousers, and a high white cravat goitre-like in thickness, as was 
introduced by George IV., and showing on each side of the chin the pro- 
truding points of a swallow-tail standing collar. Most men wore a 
home made suit, but what I have described was the dress suit of the day. 
It was adopted as a dress suit by all men in public life, but clergymen. 
The lawyer, while pleading, unless on circuit was always arrayed in addi- 



50 Incidents of my Life 

tion in low quarter shoes or pumps and silk stockings, for such special 
occasions. A large ruffled shirt-front and with ruffles aroiuid the wrists 
was also in common use. But Mr. Deportment, the hotel keeper, was 
punctilious and was never seen without his functional embellishments, 
unless in the bosom of his family his official check-rein, as it is supposed, 
was only loosened after his retirement for the night. Meals at all hours 
were served for the convenience of the travelling public. But for those 
remaining, the regular dinner was served about two o'clock in the 
large dining-room, and it was the occasion of the day. All were expected 
to be punctual and to assemble in the parlor, and when dinner was 
annoimced, as in a private house, the host presented his arm to the lady 
who could claim the highest social position. She was placed at his 
right, with the fullest Chesterfield exhibit of manner, while the other 
guests, who had followed in procession, were seeking their places. He 
always had his decanter of wine in front of him, and after soup had been 
served, he would fill his glass and send the decanter with his compliments 
to toast each honored guest in turn. After coffee or some special cordial 
had been served, all would rise, and while the ladies left the room, the 
host and those gentlemen who wished to pass the remainder of the day 
with a clear head would also withdraw. 

I, being always at my mother's side, was able to see and take in all 
that was going on. The day's work began at that time much earlier 
in the day than at present, and no one did any work after dinner if it 
could be avoided. Therefore, there would always be a number in the 
hotel who wotild begin after dinner to sip their wine from one bottle or 
more in turn to the profit of the house, until they would be taken off 
to bed. As their night began about sunset, they were all early risers 
and ready for business with a cool head next morning. 

The custom of the present day of cocktail drinking at any time after 
daylight and keeping it up all day did not then exist, for, imless a business 
man was a pronounced drunkard, he drank nothing in the way of a stimu- 
lant until dinner. A man formerly seemed able thus to take his wine 
freely after dinner with less injurious effects than many of to-day who 
undertake a self-imposed task of thus increasing the revenue of their 
cotmtry by frequently repeated drinks. 

The hotel we always stopped at in Washington was, I think, called 
the Indian Queen, but I am doubtful on this point. As I recollect, it 
formed four sides of a square, with a large space open on the main street 
to drive into the courtyard. There was on the inside of the open court- 
yard a gallery or piazza running around each story, onto which the 
sleeping-rooms opened, and the stairway of the hotel passed from one 
story to the other of this piazza. This courtyard was a most attractive 



Visit to Washington City 51 

place for me to look out upon, as there was something going on all the 
time. 

The arrival and departure of several stage-coaches each day were an 
object of special interest, as all in the hotel seemed at that time to crowd 
out on the piazza to see them. The empty coaches, when not in use, 
remained outside in front of the stable, and all day they were being 
washed by the stable-boys, or the horses were being groomed. The 
kitchen at the back of the dining-room on the first story also opened on- 
to the court, and almost all the food was prepared outside of the back 
door in full sight — from the peeling of the potatoes to the killing and pick- 
ing the feathers off the chickens. There seemed something going on all 
the time, with loud laughter and repartee between the chambermaids 
and the stable boys, or with those connected with the kitchen or laundry 
and their friends, who, on passing along outside, would drop in to pay 
their respects. As it was warm, at all hours of the day, the children and 
nurses, with many of the guests, would be outside on the shady side of 
the piazza. Altogether, with the crying of the children, in addition to the 
noise of the dog fights, which seemed always going on, as the dogs of 
the town were apparently fed on the refuse thrown out from the kitchen, 
it was always a lively place, and I was kept on the go all the time for 
fear that I should lose seeing or hearing something of interest. The 
accomplishment of being able to recognize bad smells can only be the 
result of over-civilization, for at that time there must have been con- 
tinuously in this courtyard a sufficient variety of odors to have satisfied 
any connoisseur, and yet no one seemed to appreciate the fact. There 
was a manure-heap by the stable door, but an effort was evidently made 
every day to cart at least a portion away, as it remained about the same. 
There was also a pigsty somewhere in the neighborhood of the stable, 
which I could not locate, as I was not allowed to go prospecting, but 
having lived on a farm I was able to know by the sound of the pigs squeal- 
ing when they were being fed. As there were no sewers all the refuse 
slops from the stables, laundry, and kitchen below were thrown out in 
front, and the only show of any responsibility was in the apparent effort 
to throw these slops as far away from the house as their strength would 
admit. Above, from the verandahs, all the slops from the bed-rooms 
were pitched into space over the railing without hesitation. It seemed 
rather a good joke for the sportive nymph of the slop-jar to abide her 
time in the passage of some darkey Apollo below, to startle if not spatter, 
and at the same time thus announcing her readiness for a flirtation. 

Naturally, there were mud -holes in abundance, and these contributed 
greatly to the easement and comfort of the roving swine of the city. 
These animals seemed countless, and this courtyard was evidently a 



52 Incidents of my Life 

favorite place of resort, as they dropped in singly and together. Their 
purpose may have been to hear the latest news amid the fashionable 
devotees of porkdom, but be that as it may, it always proved a resting 
place and one for a siesta. The well, which furnished all the drinking 
water, was placed midway between the stable and kitchen and aroimd 
it were a number of mud-holes, as every time a bucket of water was to be 
drawn, it would be emptied of what was left in it by the last user. I 
recollect there was always a plank or two laid on the ground about it so 
that it could be reached without getting the feet wet. 

This was before the discovery of bacteria, the development of the 
germ theory, and when the existence of typhoid fever had not yet been 
recognized in this country. Yet, the drainage into that well was the 
only means by which the surface of the ground in the neighborhood was 
kept in a condition which allowed of passage. 

In time, and in response to the demand of the public for greater 
facilities and comfort for the traveller, this old caravansary was torn 
down years after and on the site a modern hotel was built. No special 
sickness was ever known to have occurred in connection with the old house 
nor with the new hotel until after the inauguration of some President, 
whose name I cannot recall, but I am certain it was shortly before the 
ante-bellum period. There was then a sudden outbreak of typhoid fever 
in different parts of the country, and it w^as found confined to .those who 
had been in Washington at that time, during the presidential inaugura- 
tion, and who had stopped at the National Hotel. The Government had 
an investigation made, and finally the cause was traced to the water 
obtained from a pump in the hotel and in which the water was supposed 
to have been particularly good. The pump evidently had been placed 
in the old well which stood in the open courtyard as I have described, and 
which had been in use for so many years. 

My father took me to the Capitol, placed at one end of the main 
street, and the President's house or the White House, at the other. 
He told me of the vandalism of the English during the War of 1812, 
in burning the first Capitol and other public buildings, with as much of 
the town as they had time to fire. In after-life, through my reading, I 
have found this was their usual practice of warfare to burn public build- 
ings, with the churches and public records. This they did in Ireland 
with every outbreak of the people from the time of their first landing as 
Normans, until the beginning of the last century, when they seemed to 
have had nothing more left to destroy. 

I had all the distinguished men in the House of Representatives and 
Senate pointed out to me, and was told how they were chosen and what 
section different members in each House represented, as well as the 



Prominent Members of Congress 53 

most important' features in the history of each individual, most of which 
I have remembered to this day. I saw John Quincy Adams, who was 
then serving in Congress after he had retired from the Presidency, and 
he died several years after in the Capitol, while still a member of Congress. 
I saw Henry Clay who was elected President by the popular vote several 
times after, but failed to receive the majority vote in the electoral college. 
Calhovm was a remarkable-looking man and, as I remember his appear- 
ance, he was the most intellectual looking man I saw. Daniel Webster 
seemed to me stupid and indifferent until he had been speaking for a 
while. Benton seemed very much the same. Van Buren's face inter- 
ested me as he seemed to be quick and wideawake, and I recollect acknow- 
ledging to myself that he would be too much for me in a trade or barter. * 
Polk, who was afterwards President, looked to me like a clergyman and 
a good man. There were many others and I formed from recollection 
some opinion of them all, and I have been at times surprised with what 
accuracy the instinct of a child enabled me to pass judgment on them. 
Almost all of the prominent men I saw were dressed in the same style as 
the hotel keeper, in the blue dress-coat and brass buttons. There was 
some exciting question relating to slavery under debate in both Houses, 
and I heard each person speak whom I have mentioned. But I can 
recall nothing said in relation to the subject under discussion, as only the 
men themselves seemed to interest me, and as a child those from the 
South impressed me as being the best speakers. 

• Van Buren was a personal friend of my uncle, Judge Robert Emmet, and Webster married 
the sister of William H. Le Roy, my uncle by marriage. These gentlemen I met socially 
later in life. 



Chapter V 



Taken to see the original Declaration of Independence — History of its conception, after 
Virginia passed Mason's Bill of Rights — Virginia delegates in Congress, through Richard 
Henry Lee, were instructed to urge Congress to a passage of a Declaration of Indepen- 
dence — Referred to a committee — Jefferson became chairman and drafted the instru- 
ment — Franklin and John Adams only members of the committee who took part in its 
preparation — Governor of Pennsylvania appointed a new delegation in favor of its 
passage — Bill reported and passed only by the vote of Delaware, secured by the vote of 
Rodney, who was serving in the army and was sent for to give the casting vote — A new 
Congress met in August, 1776, and the Declaration was ordered to be engrossed and signed, 
for fear there might be spies among the members — As Congress met with closed doors 
it was not known to the public who were members of Congress — No one signed the Declara- 
tion before August 20th, and a number who did sign it were not members of Congress 
when it was passed — Rodney did not sign the Declaration until over two years after he had 
voted for its passage — During the Administration of John Quincy Adams the original was 
dampened to obtain an offset from the signatures, to prepare a facsimile for presentation 
to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only survivor of the signers — This caused in time 
the signatures to fade out — Discovered during the Civil War, and the circumstance was 
accepted by some as a bad omen for the Northern States — Railroad from Washington 
to Baltimore was the first built in the United States and used as a tram-way, for want 
of engines which were made in England and were not finished in time — Interesting episode 
in connection with this road where I was spanked by my father for being too self-assertive 
— Visit to Philadelphia — Interesting recollections — As a child greatl}^ attracted by the 
Quaker women — Visit to the old Arcade in Chestnut Street — The purchase there of a 
Continental note was the nucleus of the "Emmet Collection" of Americana — Recollec- 
tions of my first visit to New York — St. John's Church and St. John's Park — My uncle's 
residence there — Visit to Bond Street, when it had but one house — Return through a 
corn-field above Canal Street — Rev. John Murray Forbes — History of St. Ann's Catholic 
Church in 8th Street, facing Lafayette Place — Birth of m.y eldest son, his christening 
and caudle party — Mrs. August Belmont — My grandfather's city residence corner Nassau 
and Pine streets — My first residence in New York in a boarding-house on 20th Street 
during the winter of 1852 and 1853, and on Fourth Avenue, above 12th Street, after 
May, 1853 — My first visit as a child to Scudder's Museum described, what I saw there 
with my negro nurse — History of Bamum's dog-headed boy — St. Paul's Church — Its 
monuments — Sir John Temple, his connection with the family and his history — Elysian 
fields at Hoboken. 



WAS taken to the State Department, then as I 
recollect, in some building which had been a dwell- 
ing house, to see the Declaration of Independence, 
which was framed and hanging on the wall. I was 
held up to see it until a chair was gotten, where I 
remained spelling out the names with the greatest 
interest, while the others of the party were else- 
where and I would not leave until I had read every portion. I had no 

54 




The Declaration of Independence 55 

thought at that time I should become an authority in after-life on every 
circumstance connected with the history of this document. There are 
but few persons now living who can recall its condition as I saw it, when 
it was as fresh looking as if it had just been executed. 

As so little is known of the history of the Declaration of Independence, 
except by those who have given the subject special study, a brief sketch 
may be of interest to the reader, and it is not inappropriate that I should 
write it, as no one else ever gathered together more material than I was 
able to do in illustrating its history. 

After the acceptance by the Virginia Legislature, of the Bill of Rights, 
which George Mason had drawn, and on the principles of which the 
constitution of every State in the Union was afterward formulated, it 
passed early in May, 1 776, as well as a resolution directing the delegates 
in Congress from the State of Virginia to urge the immediate passage of a 
Declaration of Independence. The matter was discussed in Congress 
day after day in Committee of the Whole, until at length the delegates 
of every Colony had received special instructions to direct their action. 
A committee was formed of which Richard Henry Lee of Virginia became 
chairman, as he had presented the instructions from the Virginia Legis- 
lature urging immediate action. This committee was instructed to 
prepare a Declaration and to report without delay. That night, Lee 
received a despatch necessitating his immediate return home, in conse- 
quence of the illness of his wife. Jefferson, as the remaining delegate 
from Virginia, thus became chairman and proceeded to draft the instru- 
ment; a fortunate circumstance, as he was probably among all of this 
picked body of men, the only one whose particular training fitted him 
to gain by his masterly presentation of the subject, the largest number of 
votes. On its completion, to the composition of which Jefferson devoted 
the entire night, it was submitted to the committee. John Adams and 
Franklin each suggested the change of a few words only which were 
accepted, while the other two members took no part in the work. Robert 
R. Livingston of New York, on the day after he was placed on this com- 
mittee, returned home ostensibly to draft the Constitution of the State, 
and there is no evidence that Roger Sherman of Connecticut rendered 
any service. Late in June Jefferson presented the bill to Congress in 
Committee of the Whole, which at once reported, and it was resolved 
to take action on the fourth of July. The issue was a doubtful one, but 
simply one as to the expediency of immediate action; and while there 
were a majority of delegates in favor of passing a Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the result had to be determined by a vote of Colonies. A 
majority of the delegation from the Colony of Pennsylvania was known 
to be in the opposition and as the Governor favored its passage, like a 



56 Incidents of my Life 

prudent man he acted promptly by removing the old delegation and 
appointing a new representation, who were all in favor of the measure. 

As the negative vote of one Colony would defeat the passage of the 
bill, the result was considered very doubtful. Delaware was represented 
by three members, but Rodney was absent in the army, and of those on 
duty one was in favor and the other opposed. McKean, favoring the 
measure, sent off in the night a messenger to Rodney, whom he knew was 
in sympathy and he arrived just in time, covered with mud and with 
whip in hand, to cast his vote making Delaware a unit, and the measure 
was thus only passed by a majority of one State. 

It is said there is a letter in existence written by John Adams to his 
wife on the night of the fourth, telling her about the passage of the Decla- 
ration. He also stated that every one was anxious to get away on account 
of the heat and the countless number of flies which had come in from a 
neighboring stable, and bit the delegates, who were all in knee breeches, 
through their silk stockings in a merciless manner. There was evidently 
some unexplained incentive, as the business of the day was disposed of 
with vmexpected promptness and unanimity. 

Congress then adjourned, and it seems evident that but few of the 
members at the time fully realized the far-reaching effect or importance 
of their action. In the latter part of the following August, the British 
having taken possession of Philadelphia, the Continental Congress was 
driven out and met in Baltimore. Simply as a matter of precaution, 
to guard against the presence of spies among them, it was decided that 
the Declaration passed by the previous Congress should be engrossed 
and signed by all the members of that Congress. Therefore, no one 
could have signed the Declaration of Independence before the 20th of 
August, and a number of those who signed it, on taking their seats be- 
tween August and the following December, were not even members of 
Congress at the time of its passage. Rodney, being in the army as has 
been stated, did not sign it until two years and a half after he had voted 
for its passage. Many, like Governor George Clinton and Robert R. 
Livingston, of New York, who were present and voted for the Declara- 
tion, are not known in connection with its history. George Clinton, 
the son of an Irishman, did not return to the next Congress as he had 
been in the interval chosen a member of the Convention which formed 
the first Constitution of the State under which he was elected the first 
Governor of the State of New York, and he served in that position for 
the term of over seventeen consecutive years. 

This is the history of the passage and signing of the Declaration of 
Independence. It was first printed as a broadside signed only by John 
Hancock, as President, and Charles Thomson, Secretary, and ordered 



The Declaration of Independence 57 

to be read in all the churches and to the army. The text was first given 
to the public by a German newspaper published on the following day, 
and it appeared in the other papers all of which were issued on Saturday. 
As the sessions of Congress were held with closed doors, it was not known 
who were the members until later, when the instrument was again ordered 
by Congress to be printed with the names of the delegates from each 
State attached, and the name of Rodney is omitted from the Delaware 
members, showing, as claimed, that he did not sign until a later period. 

A short time before I saw the Declaration for the first time at the 
State Department, and while John Q. Adams was President, by a vote 
of permission given by Congress, the Declaration was dampened suffi- 
ciently to take an offset from the ink of the signatures. This was before 
the days of any other known means of obtaining a facsimile, except by 
tracing, which would have been the proper mode of procedure had there 
been any appreciation of the responsibility. The object was to present 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only survivor of the fifty-six signers, 
with a replica. 

In an imaginary parenthesis I would state in this connection, and as 
part of the history of the Declaration, that the story of the addition to 
Carroll's name of "Carrollton" is as truthful as that of the pleasing 
degree of veracity attributed to young Washington in connection with 
the hacked cherry tree. There were four Charles CarroUs, relatives and 
cotemporaries : Charles, Senior, the father of the Signer; Charles Car- 
roll, the Signer; Charles Carroll, the Barrister, and Charles Carroll of 
Duddington. Moreover, I have had in my possession a letter of the 
Signer signed "of Carrollton," twenty years before he attached his 
name to the Declaration. 

After the location of the State Department was changed from where 
I saw it, the Declaration was taken out of the frame, put away somewhere* 
and forgotten. Years passed, until during the Civil War there was a 
question as to the punctuation and the consequent force given to some 
word. The document was hunted up, and to the horror of those who 
made the discovery, it was found that nearly all the signatures had faded 
out. Some of those who learned of the condition were disposed to put 
a superstitious interpretation on the circumstance, as an evil omen for 
the success of the Government in the Civil War. 

The result was but a natural one, and due to the gradual chemical 
action of the air upon the ink after it had been exposed to the dilution 
of the water. 

The railroad from Washington to Baltimore was the first one built 
in the United States, but the one from Albany to Schenectady was the 
first in running order. There was a delay of over a year after the Wash- 



58 Incidents of my Life 

ington and Baltimore road had been built, before the engines arrived from 
England, where they were made, and during the interval horses were 
used. I remember the cars in use on this road at the time were what 
are now termed double-deckers, and on seeing them I was delighted with 
the prospect of a ride on top. My father had in a hurried manner told 
me to be quick and get inside, and my nurse was proceeding to put me 
inside when, by pressing a fist against one of her eyes, she was forced to 
put me down and I, escaping from her, proceeded quickly to climb the 
stairway to the top. My father, seeing me, ordered me in a peremptory 
tone to come down at once, but thinking I could carry my point in con- 
sequence of the bustle and crowd, I became rather self-assertive, and 
was proceeding to the top when my father arrested my progress. On 
reaching the ground, he gathered up the texture forming the seat of 
my trousers, and administered there and then a spanking, before quite 
an amused and appreciative audience. He then lifted me into the lower 
section of the car, and I felt forthwith quite wilHng to relax all effort on 
my part to relieve the strained relation existing between my father and 
myself, and exhibited my assent by quietly accepting a place on my 
nurse's knee. Almost immediately after I had gotten inside the rain 
came down in a torrent, the coming of which my father had doubtless 
seen and realized the necessity for getting under cover, or he would have 
gratified my wish. I had no hesitation during my subsequent meditation 
in acknowledging to myself that my father was right, as he always was, 
and that I deserved all that I had received. 

Every summer on our going or returning we always stopped over to 
see three old ladies, whom I had always heard my aunt, the wife of Prof. 
George Tucker, designate as "Ann" O'Donnell, "Ann" Gilmore, and 
"Ann" Parker, while every one else spoke of them as Mrs. O'Donnell,' 
etc. My aunt was a Miss Bowdoin from the "Eas sho," or east- 
em shore of Maryland, and had worn the widow's cap three times 
before she became Mrs. Tucker. She and her aunts spoke the dialect 
of that section of the country with great fluency and could ejaculate with- 
in a given time a greater number and variety of sounds from their vocal 
cords, than I ever heard others do. I never knew why we kept up the 
acquaintance with these good people, as I could not understand a word 
spoken by either, and finally came to the conclusion that my father 
persevered in the hope of coming to some understanding, or it was one 
of the many things in life people have to do without any reason. As 
soon as these ladies had an audience they would stand back to back in the 
centre of the room, and all three would gush forth in their eloquence at 
the same time and to no one in particular. Their earnestness was so 
impressive that I was always convinced a row was impending, and for 



Interesting Recollections 59 

self-protection I would find myself standing between two of them, with 
eyes open, and ears as well. 

Suddenly I would be jumped at, while one would seize my hand and 
drop it as suddenly, another would rub my hair up the wrong way, as the 
third would give me an encouraging slap on the back, and all done in the 
most perfunctory manner, without looking at me and without the slight- 
est let up in the flow of words. I naturally would retreat, and being 
always tired out, I would curl myself up in some armchair and have 
a nap before my father and mother were ready to go to the hotel. I 
do not know if these ladies were widowed sisters and lived together, but 
we always met them in the same building. I recollect we once paid them 
a visit in the afternoon, and I remember the direction of the sun shining 
in on the carpet, and this is impressed on my mind by some figure in the 
carpet which I thought,'if elevated, would have made a handsome sun- 
dial. The house was on a corner and on the left side of the street going 
towards Barnum's Hotel. I have never ascertained the family con- 
nection, if any, with regard to ourselves, but have supposed that "Ann" 
O'Donnell was the mother of the late General O'Donnell. "Ann" 
Gilmore the wife of Robert Gilmore the old merchant and collector of 
autographs, but I have never been able to place "Ann" Parker. My 
mother had a friend living in Battle Monument Square, on the far side 
to the left from the hotel, whom she always visited, and I accompanied 
her, in the place of my father. She was a kindly little body and I recol- 
lect on being presented, I was not punched or handled as usual, as if the 
good woman was about to negotiate the purchase of a mellow apple by 
the thumb test. 

I always enjoyed my visits to Philadelphia, where we would some- 
times stop over a day instead of resting in Washington or Baltimore. 
The earliest hotel I can recollect was called Head's in Third or Fourth 
Street, between Walnut and Pine. This house had been the private 
residence of Mr. William Bingham. His father was a noted merchant 
and banker and a member of the Continental Congress, and his son, who 
built this house, was in public life during Washington's Administration. 
With the history of both the father and son I became well acquainted 
in connection with my historical studies in after-life. The son was gen- 
erally designated as the husband of a celebrated beauty, who was Miss 
Anne Willing. By common consent, she held the reputation of being 
the handsomest woman ever known in this country. If this be true, 
she should be entitled to the credit of having been without a rival at 
home or abroad, where she was as well known in social life. 

Philadelphia, at least at night, was as warm as Washington, but the 
whole city seemed so restful and clean, and without any hogs or cows in 



6o Incidents of my Life 

the street, as was the case in Washington and New York. I recollect 
how much better the bread, milk, and butter seemed to taste than else- 
where, and the impression then made on my gustatory nerves has never 
been lost. 

The Quaker dress interested me greatly and that of the women more 
than the men. The instinct of child or dog is unerring as to those friendly 
to them, and as a child I felt like going up and kissing many of the women 
I met in the street. From curiosity I probably exceeded the bounds of 
politeness by staring, and deserved many of the severe looks I got from 
the men. But with the younger women, instead of my rudeness being 
resented, as I caught their eye I was met with that indescribable degree 
of benevolence in a smile, which a child would associate with the recol- 
lection of a good mother. It seemed to me at that time that nearly every 
person but the strangers wore the Quaker dress, while at the present day 
the proportion has been reversed. 

I remember Independence Hall and how much I was told about the 
Signers of the Declaration. This was my introduction to all with whom 
I was in after-life to become almost as well acquainted as if I had been 
contemporary. I saw the house in which William Penn lived, and at our 
first acquaintance I became familiar with his history. I recollect the 
Arcade in Chestnut Street below Ninth, with its four rows of small 
shops on a level with the street and with some museum above. I think 
it was Peale's Museum, and if so, it was noted for containing a portrait 
gallery of men connected with the Revolution and which was destroyed 
by fire in New York many years after, on the burning of Barnum's 
Museum. I, in common with every student of American history, after- 
wards realized the incalculable loss which had been sustained in the 
destruction of so many unique portraits which were all painted from life 
by Peale. 

These shops in the Arcade, in which it seemed as if all the odds and 
ends of the country had been collected, had a very quaint and foreign ap- 
pearance, and they would have rivalled our present bric-a-brac collections. 
Had I possessed the means, I was inclined to purchase everything in 
sight, but my resources were limited to ten cents. This I invested in 
the purchase of a piece of Continental currency, having engraved on it 
one of the quaint designs furnished by Franklin for the purpose, a 
sun-dial with a sun above, and the words " Mind your business. " This 
purchase was made over seventy-five years ago and was destined to 
become an historic piece, as it was the nucleus of the ' ' Emmet Collection ' ' 
of paper money and Americana, now in the Lenox Library, New York. 

My earliest recollection in connection with New York is associated 
with a visit to my uncle, Robert Emmet, and his family. He then lived 



Interesting Recollections 6i 

in a house still standing, No. 30 Beach Street, facing St. John's Park and 
near the southeast corner and in which Thomas Addis Emmet, my 
grandfather, had died some years before. This park was then beautifully 
kept and was for the exclusive use of the children and members of the 
different families living on the square, and the occupants of each house 
had a key. I once, with my Grandmother Tucker, attended the morning 
service in St. John's Church, facing on the park, and which is now to be 
abandoned to make room for the demands of business, as the park has 
been utilized for years by the site of a freight depot. From an aesthetic 
standpoint, this is a piece of vandalism quite in keeping with destroying 
the park for a freight depot. 

I recollect after the service in the old church we went to take dinner 
with a cousin of my grandmother, Mr. Richard Jennings Tucker, an old 
Indian merchant, and who, I believe, built the first house in Bond 
Street. I now can recall nothing of a street and only a house in the 
country. We walked along what mu.st have been Canal Street and 
crossed a bridge, probably at Broadway. I remember seeing water in 
the middle of the street, but I do not think it was all open as this canal 
was afterwards covered and used as a sewer. 

After dinner we did not return home for some reason and we remained 
for tea. I did not return with my grandmother and she was probably 
taken back in some conveyance. I walked with my nurse and some 
other woman, a servant most likely, sent to show us the way. We 
crossed a very dusty country road, but called Broadway, and by means 
of a stile got over a stone fence into a corn-field. It was after dark, but 
a bright moon was shining, and a heavy dew was falling. Having the 
hand of my nurse I was dragged along across the furrows and at times 
between the rows of corn, while I was tired and sleepy. I could see but 
little of our course and was irritated by the wet corn leaves passing across 
my face, as I pleaded in vain for my nurse to carry me. Through this 
corn-field we took a diagonal or short cut toward St. John's Park, and 
the steeple of the church I suppose was the guide, as after leaving the 
corn-field we reached the house by a very short walk. 

The clergyman of St. John's at that time was the Rev. John Murray 
Forbes, a young man who must have been but recently stationed there 
from Trinity Church, and he called upon my father and mother. Twenty- 
five or thirty years after, my personal acquaintance with him began. 
He had become a Catholic priest and was stationed at St. Ann's Church 
on Eighth Street, facing Lafayette Place, and on the site now covered 
by Wanamaker's new store. I had been but recently married and lived 
near the corner of Twelfth Street and Fourth Avenue, on the east side, 
and had a pew in this church. Dr. Forbes was very zealous in his work 



62 Incidents of my Life 



and we saw a good deal of him socially. He baptised at the house my 
oldest son and only child at that time, and on getting up, my wife com- 
memorated the occasion by giving a large caudle party, as was then 
often done and all our acquaintances were invited. One feature I recall 
in the presence of Mrs. August Belmont, whom I had not seen since a 
child. She had been recently married and had developed, it struck me, 
into one of the prettiest and most graceful women I had ever seen, and 
one who exhibited an exquisite taste in dressing. 

Shortly after this occasion. Dr. Forbes got into some trouble with 
Archbishop Hughes, resigned his charge, and returned to the Episcopal 
Church. 

The building used as the church had even a more checkered experience 
than the clergyman. The Presbyterians built at an early date a church 
on the northwest corner of Nassau and Wall streets. In time this was 
taken down and put up again in Jersey City, and a larger church built 
on the same site and plan. For years this church, its graveyard, and the 
city residence of my grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, on the south- 
west comer of Pine, and with a house between for his law office, filled 
the front on Nassau Street between Wall and Pine. This church was 
finally sold and rebuilt uptown on East Eighth Street, for the Catholics, 
who sold it to the Episcopalians after building the present St. Ann's 
Church in East Twelfth Street. It was a curious circumstance that 
Father Preston, then in charge, left the Episcopal Church at the same 
time as Dr. Forbes, and had been his assistant at St. John's, and succeeded 
him in charge of St. Ann's Church, but remained steadfast afterward and 
died in the Catholic faith. The Episcopalians finally sold this building 
to the Jews, and for years it was used as a synagogue. The Jews sold 
it in turn and the building was altered into a German theatre. Finally 
A. T. Stewart purchased the property and used it for his carpet de- 
partment, until with the sale of Stewart's establishment it went to 
Wanamaker. 

My negro nurse was very much annoyed by the Abolitionists, who 
constantly called upon her and stopped her in the street, urging her to 
become a fugitive and go to Canada. She was very indignant, and having 
an active tongue she did not give much thought to the selection of terms 
by which she expressed her indignation, the burden of which was to 
state that she had lived all her life "with the .quality and for what should 
she leave them to live with buckra and poor white trash as they was?" 
She could not be influenced and made several visits afterwards to New 
York. The following year, I think, she made the trip in charge of my 
brother and myself, and as she had become more familiar with the city 
we were able to do a great deal of sightseeing. 



Visit to Scudder Museum 63 

I recollect we visited the Scudder Museum, on the corner of Ann Street 
and Broadway, which was purchased by Barnum in 1840. Just on enter- 
ing, I stopped the party to spell out a very conspicuous poster announcing 
the regret of the proprietor at the delay in being able to exhibit one of 
Pharaoh's chariot wheels, which had been acquired from the bottom of 
the Red Sea, at a great expense. But having been so long under water 
all the iron work had rusted away and made it very difficult to have the 
repairs made without destroying its identity ! My Grandmother Tucker 
had made me very familiar with the Bible, and it was consequently a 
source of great regret that we were to return home before the time an- 
nounced, when the public was to be gratified, I really felt as if it were 
a loss of opportunity in thus turning my back, when I would be able to 
see something so closely connected with one who had become associated 
in my mind as an old friend. 

Among the many wonderful things we saw was a large cage of mon- 
keys, which occupied our attention for a long time. No one of the party 
was more enthusiastic than our nurse, in this, her first acquaintance with 
the monkey species. They were each dressed in a short red flannel shirt 
and it struck me they resembled a lot of young negroes. At the time 
of our visit they were being fed, with their food in tin cups. They would 
force their paws into the cup to withdraw as much as could be grasped, 
and what could not be crowded into their mouths was smeared over their 
faces. The nurse in her admiration for the exhibit exclaimed, at the top 
of her voice: "Well, if they ain't just like folks!" She confided to me, 
" I spect dees is niggers, and dey par and mar don't talk none, 'kaze dey 
got sense and know if dey does talk, some white folks gwine put dem to 
work!" 

A few years after I thought Barnum was a very remarkable and useful 
member of society, and in connection with Pharaoh's chariot I have 
suspected he was the moving spirit before he became the proprietor. 
I always maintained a great admiration for Barnum before I knew him, 
as he was certainly a genius. But in after-life, when I did see him and 
know him, I could never help recalling the interrogation of an old negro : 
"You ever seen dis nigger Barnum done nicknamed Kino somethin'? 
He ain't no Kino nothin', but my sister Jane Williams' Bill, who done 
hire himself to Barnum for a dollar a week and all the chicken he can 
eat." This is the history of the "Dog Headed Boy" whom Barnum 
had on exhibition for so long a time. 

In later years, a member of Barnum's family came under my care, 
and I got to know him very well. His frequent salutation was: "Doc, 
with the beautiful business you have got, you do not advertise enough. 
You can't continue to prosper if you don't advertise and do enough of 



64 Incidents of my Life 

it!" The code of professional ethics was too much, for him, and while 
he always had a great respect for me personally, he finally came to the 
conclusion that I lacked common sense "in letting a lot of fellows, who 
could n't do as well, tie you up so!" 

On leaving the Museum, we crossed the street to see the monument 
which had been recently erected by the Irishmen of the country to the 
memory of my grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, and we were delayed 
for some time before we could get inside of St. Paul's Churchyard, which 
then had a high brick wall around it. I was told the great monolith, 
some thirty feet in height, was brought from Vermont and must have 
been hauled by oxen or horses for the greater part of the way. The 
railroad up the valley of the Connecticut to the north had not then been 
built, but the shaft might have been brought by boat from Hartford 
or down the North River, from the neighborhood of Albany. 

It is thought by many that this monument marks my grandfather's 
grave. This is not so, as his remains are in a vault, under St. Mark's 
Church, which belonged to his friend, Chancellor Jones, a very distin- 
guished lawyer. They were deposited there temporarily, and through 
some oversight they were never removed to my uncle's family vault in 
the Marble Cemetery, Second Street. But I hope some time they wiU be 
deposited in a more appropriate place, under his monument in St. Paul's 
Churchyard. Moreover, that the remains of his beloved wife, who 
shared his imprisonment in Fort George, Scotland, for several years, and 
who throughout her married life sympathized so zealously with him in all 
his aspirations for the betterment of Ireland, may finally rest with his 
in the same place. Her remains are not with his at the present time, 
but in the vault of her son-in-law, Edward Boonen Graves, in the now- 
disused and forgotten cemetery in Second Avenue, on the west side above 
Second Street. This burial place is frequently confused with the Marble 
Cemetery in Second Street, where the vault of Thomas Addis Emmet the 
Master in Chancery, was located. 

After leaving the Museum and seeing the Emmet monument, I recall 
being told about General Richard Montgomery, also an Irishman, who 
fell in the attack on Quebec during the Revolution, and whose remains, 
fifty years after, were buried under the front porch of St. Paul's Church, 
but I do not recollect that his monument was then in position. 

In after-years I was interested with Mr. John McKean, the 
district attorney at that time for the city, and who did all the 
work in placing the Macnevin monument, erected on the other 
side to the north, and corresponding with the position of the Emmet 
one to the south. This testimonial was also erected by the Irishmen 
of the United States to Doctor William J. Macnevin in grateful 



64 Incidei 

.le code of ..in., and while 

he ai.vays ha^ , ame to the 

conclu'^ion rl , ilows, who 

vmnument 
the 



lit, was urougnt from \ermont and must have 

r horses for the greater part of the way. The 

L valley of the Connecticut to the north had not then been 

shaft might have been brought by boat from Hartford 

-, from the neighborhood of Albany. 

:- • t!iat this monur'ient marks m-- ::'/■ ■''-■ther's 



Mrs. Thomas A. Emmet through 

[Jane Patten Emmet] ^'^^^^ ^^ 

Painted in 1844 by her daughter, Mrs. William H.''''^^. ^^^^ "^^ ^^ 

LeRoy - -- ---■ -'^umcnt in St. Paul's 

Uie remains of his beloved wife, who 

ort George, Scotland, for -^Ax-pr- 1 i,,-,-rc -,1-,/^ 

married life sympathized so zea; 

: the betterment of Ireland, ma> .,.>..,. ., . .- 

ane place. Her remains are not with his at the present time, 

lie vault of her son-in-law, EdAvard Boonen Graves, in the now- 

::nd forgotten cemetery in Second Avenue, on the west side above 

1 r. pt This burial place is frequently confused with the Marble 

Street, where the vault of Thomas Addis Emmet the 

mmet montmient, I recall 

remains. 



■ •.an, the 
a:d all the 
*^'-'"^ on the other 

side to t of the Emmet 

one to the b a t^y the Irishmen 

of the Unite ^r.cnevin in grateftil 



St. Paul's Church 65 

acknowledgment of his services to - his native land, and the devo- 
tion of his after-life to the interests of his adopted country. Of the 
countless number of Irishmen who have emigrated to this country from 
its first settlement, and who devoted their after-life to its development, 
I believe none were more zealous than were these three sons of Erin.^ 

While walking through the churchyard I was told that when St. 
Paul's Church was built its front was, as the steeple shows, toward the 
river, and it faced on Greenwich Street, which was then the main road to 
the coiuitry along the water edge, while Broadway at this point was only 
a cow-path. The sexton or some one with us pointed out the grave of the 
great English actor, George Frederick Cooke, who, I learned after, had 
died in this country, and the celebrated actor Edmund Kean had his 
remains placed here, and erected a monument, but the grave at that time 
had nothing to distinguish it. 

Inside of the church I took a seat in Washington's pew and recollect 
seeing a mural tablet designating the burial place of a relative, as I was 
told. Sir John Temple. 

In after-life I became fully acquainted with the history of Sir John 
Temple, who played an important part in the destiny of our family. 
Sir John Temple, a young Irishman, with his brother Robert, came to 
the American Colonies early in life. They were nephews of my great- 
grandfather, Dr. Robert Emmet of Dublin. One married, later in life, 

» Dr. Macnevin did not die until July, 1841, and while I cannot recall having ever ex- 
changed a word directly with him, I feel to have met and known him as a very important 
circumstance of my life, and I shall always feel that he was one of the most distinguished 
men I have ever seen. Children were very fond of being in his company, as he was very 
gentle, but he was a man of very few words, yet sometimes he would talk for a length of 
time and always on some subject of interest. He never made any reference to Ireland, or to 
his own past history, or to any other subject, so far as I can remember, — but to Napoleon 
and his battles, and at the same time he was no friend of Napoleon. After the Doctor was 
liberated, with my grandfather, from their imprisonment in Fort George, Scotland, he held 
for some time a captain's commission in the Irish Brigade, which was a part of Napoleon's 
army under his direct command, and Dr. Macnevin was for some tim.e in active service. 
He was a remarkably handsome man with beautiful black eyes, rather undersize and when 
his features were in repose he had the saddest expression I ever saw any one have. He lived 
in recollection of the past, and he carried to his grave this sorrow for the apparently hopeless 
condition of his native country. As a boy, his presence filled me with reverential fear, as an 
exalted being to be venerated on account of his service to Ireland, and I was never tired of 
looking at him. My father had been a pupil and a great favorite, and they would talk to- 
gether by the hour on scientific subjects. Dr. Macnevin was a man of remarkable attain- 
ments. He spoke fluently Irish, his native tongue, Latin, German, French, Italian, as he was 
educated abroad, and English. He was well read in English literature, and familiar almost 
with every subject. He gave his professional services free to all his countrymen who needed 
them, and otherwise devoted both his time and means without limit to improving their con- 
dition. Dr. Macnevin in 1816 established a free labor bureau at his own expense, and 
maintained it for many years, to aid the Irish emigrants in getting employment, and this was 
the first agency of the kind in New York, 
s 



66 Incidents of my Life 

the daughter of Governor Bowdoin, and Robert, the elder, had married, 
soon after his arrival, the daughter of Governor Shirley of Boston, Mass., 
and both became fully identified with the people and interests of this 
coiintry. When the Revolution began, they fvlly sympathized with the 
grievances of the people, and were personally acquainted with all the 
movers, but they were opposed to separation and were Loyalists, in con- 
tradistinction to the Tories. When the Declaration of Independence 
was passed they returned to Ireland and stayed at the house of their 
uncle, my great-grandfather, for some time, until the English Government 
gave them a pension, as they had lost their property in Boston from 
confiscation. The eldest son of Dr. Robert Emmet, Christopher Temple 
Emmet, married the eldest daughter of Robert Temple, and Sir J. G. 
Blackwood married the other, and became afterwards, for his vote in favor 
of the so-called union between England and Ireland, the first Lord 
Dufferin. The two nephews were Republicans in principle, and had a 
great admiration personally for the leaders of the Revolution in this 
country, but they had been opposed to the final separation as a matter 
apparently of expediency, a position difficult to understand at this period. 
They, however, succeeded in doctrinating their uncle with such a degree 
of admiration in sympathy with the movement in America, that he 
became an ardent Republican. Previous to that time, the Emmet family 
in Ireland had been for over two hundred years but part of the English 
garrison in Ireland, and with no sympathy or interest with the Irish 
people. 

Dr. Robert Emmett or Emmet, as a young man began the practice of 
his profession in Cork, but was induced by his relative. Earl Temple, 
when for the first time Lord Lieutenant, to come to Dublin to practise, 
where he was appointed State Physician and received a number of 
other official positions connected with the practice of his profession. 
Among these, he became the physician in charge of St. Patrick's Hospital 
and served it about thirty-eight years. This institution, containing one 
hundred beds, was founded in 1744 by Dean Swift, who evidently had 
some premonition of his own end. At the time, the necessity for an insane 
asylum was ridiculed, as the disease was almost unknown in the country ; 
while to-day no other country has so large a proportion of the insane 
and imbecile, in proportion to its population, as Ireland. This is the 
natural result or a direct consequence of the misgovemment of the past 
with the uncertainty of the future, to which this unhappy country was 
subjected for centuries. Dr. Robert Emmet, in 1783, gave up all the 
official positions he had held for years. I have in my possession a large 
silver salver which was given him by the Governors of St. Patrick's 
Hospital, Dublin, when he resigned his position. It is thirty-one 










navanDfiM .{ mBilli 







^Oif 



ze. 



[ ncidci 



hizedmth the 

: i.ed with all the 

: id were Loyalists, in con- 

laration of Independence 

stayed at the house of their 

, until the English Government 

a, as they Had lost their property in Boston from 

eldest son of Dr. Robert Emmet, Christopher Temple 

i:. ^ d the eldest daughter of Robert Temple, and Sir J. G. 

J :'• i , rried the other, and became afterwards, for his vote in favor 

of the so-called union between England and Ireland, the first Lord 

Dufferin. The t^^o ncoif v ,\ ere RepubHcans in principle, and had a 

\at admiration J leaders of the Revolution in this 

•tn.- hut tht-v ' to the final separation as a matter 

iifficult to understand at this period. 

; ni r ( ir unclc with such a degree 

nt in America, that he 



Dr. William J. Macnevfeine, the 

• years but part 



■.r^\Ur 



i Temple, 

--..•^ ■■■ i..tii,ai.i CO practise, 

n and received a number of 

■ u^ <..unv:.ci<ru v.M.ii thc practicc of his profession. 

ame the physician in charge of St. Patrick's Hospital 

, t .„, . ;^]^|. years. This institution, containing one 

1744 by Dean Swift, who evidently had 

'*''"'"■ ■'' '--an insane 

. country; 

^.'i the insane 

1. This is the 

I nrnent of the past 

happy country was 

-H3, gave up all the 

■V possession a large 

- r{ St. Patrick's 

■ ; is thirty-one 





''a^ 



^^t^^-— ^ 



Sir John Temple 67 

inches in diameter, and on it is engraved the following inscription: 
"Presented by unanimous consent of the governors of St. Patrick's 
Hospital, Dublin, to Robert Emmet, Esq., State Physician, as a Memorial 
not compensation, of the many services rendered by him to that institu- 
tion, as Governor, Physician, and Treasurer thereof. — Feb. 3, 1783." 

The governors of this hospital were ex officio as a body composed of 
the chief officials of the city of Dublin. At that time great importance 
was attached to the use of heraldic arms, and so much so that no one was 
allowed to bear them in Great Britain or Ireland unless entitled to do so. 
Therefore, under the circumstances the presence of the arms engraved 
in the centre'of this salver, which are the same as had been used by the 
family for several centuries, and the fact that they were placed there by 
direction of this Board of Governors, proves beyond question that Dr. 
Emmet was entitled to the use of them. Dr. Emmet became a Republi- 
can and brought up his sons in the way they should go. The eldest son 
died in early life; Thomas Addis was a leader in 1798, and after several 
years imprisonment was exiled, and Robert was executed for participa- 
tion in the movement of 1803. So the whole family was wiped out, with 
the exception of my grandfather and his immediate family. After his 
release, he settled in this country and appreciated the blessing to such a 
degree that he considered the sacrifices of no value in comparison to 
becoming a citizen of the United States. 

Robert Temple died before the end of the Revolution, and his brother 
John returned to this country as soon as peace was declared, and settled 
in New York. He never gave up his connection with the English Govern- 
ment and it is said that the first recognition of the supremacy of the United 
States made by George the Third after signing the articles of peace was 
by signing the commission of Sir John Temple, as Consul General from 
Great Britain to the United States. Sir John held the position in this 
country for many years and finally died in New York and was buried 
underneath the floor of St. Paul's Church, and there is a mural tablet 
above to his memory. 

On leaving St. Paul's Church the Astor House, which, I think, was 
not then completed, was pointed out as one of the finest buildings in the 
world. We were taken over the North River to see the Elysian Fields 
at Hoboken, or Hobuck, as it was called formerly. This was a kind of 
park for warm days and evenings, where ice cream, pink "ice-cold lemon- 
ade, " and ginger cakes cut in the shape of a horse or a spread eagle were 
sold. I think we crossed the river in a boat with a horse on each side as 
a treadmill to turn the wheels. There was a small cave with a fortune- 
teller seated at the entrance. The cave was pretty, but very small and 
not to be compared to several I had seen in Virginia. 



Chapter VI 



Visit to Rockaway, Long Island — Can only recollect Madame Bonaparte, ex-Mayor Philip 
Hone, and a little girl, afterwards Madame Fowler, a nun in the Order of the Sisters of 
the Sacred Heart — Madame Bonaparte's appearance and dress — Fond of giving young 
children sweetmeats — How I managed to get a double portion — Mr. Hone a friend of 
my father and uncles — He seemed to take a fancy to me and was fond of resting his hand 
on my head much to my annoyance — His home in Broadway — Entertained all strangers — 
Little Miss Fowler was a great-granddaughter of Count Adml. de Grasse, of the French 
Navy who took part at the surrender of Cornwallis— The neighborhood of Prince Street 
and Broadway described — First stage line — History of the Lombardy poplar sent to this 
country by General Lafayette — The Ravel pantomime troop at Niblo's Garden — Park 
Theatre — Tyrone Power, the Irish actor — Lost in the President — Old Bowery Theatre — 
The pit described — The elder Booth — Booth's Theatre, 23d Street and Sixth Avenue — 
The improvements made in the city during Tweed's administration — Visits to my uncle 
and family on Third Avenue — Difficulties of the Mt. Vernon "Gang" with the boys 
working in a neighboring ropewalk — Return to the University — My tutor and his end — 
Visited New York the following summer and it was spent with a number of the family 
at Babylon, Long Island — Entertainment on Fire Island — My father imported the first 
indiarubber-cloth boots from Paris, and a daguerreotype apparatus — Description of the 
first "gum" shoes made in this country — Seeking a school for me at the North — Visit to 
Hartford, Conn., a noted school — I detected it was a "humbug" and my father agreed 
with me — Finally sent to St. Thomas's Hall, Flushing, Long Island, under the Rev. 
Dr. Francis Hawks — Became ill and dissatisfied with the school — Correspondence with 
my father on the subject, which left an indelible impression on me — Some account of my 
father's life — He was cadet at West Point and detailed assistant Professor of Mathe- 
matics — Resigned on account of bad health — Two years in Europe — On his return 
studied medicine — Began practice in Charleston, S. C. — Appointed Professor in the 
University of ■ Virginia by Jefferson — Obliged to spend the winter of 1841 in Florida — An 
interesting anecdote relating to the Rev. Dr. Anthon and Rev. Dr. Hawks — Dear old 
Tom Bayard of Delaware, the only one of my schoolmates at Hawks's school for whom I 
retained an affectionate regard unbroken through life. 



\ 




E spent part of the summer at Rockaway, Long Island, 
where a large hotel had been recently built and it 
was then a fashionable resort for most of the promi- 
nent people in New York City. We crossed in a 
small open steam ferry-boat to Brooklyn, and at 
the landing took regular stage-coaches, or Concord 
coaches as they were called, from the town in New 
Hampshire where thej^ were all made. The ferry landed under the 
Brooklyn Heights and there seemed to be very few houses at that time in 
Brooklyn, as I recollect it. The road ran along the bank of the East 
River to the westward for some distance before it began to ascend the 
steep bank, much of which must have been dug away afterward. A great 

68 



Madame Bonaparte 69 

part of the road was sandy and flat, with nothing special on the way but 
the large mosquitoes, and we had -a hot ride lasting three or four hours. 
The hotel seemed to me of enormous size, with three or four stories, 
and large pillars supporting the roof, which projected over the long 
and broad piazza. The hotel built on the sand was facing the 
ocean about half a mile away, and without any trees about it. My 
father and the other members of the family seemed to know every one, 
but I recollect only three persons, Madame Bonaparte, Philip Hone of 
New York, and a little girl. Madame Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte 
of Baltimore was the wife of Jerome Bonaparte. But Napoleon forced 
his brother to abandon his wife and take one of his choice. Madame 
Bonaparte was one of the most beautiful women of her day and Gilbert 
Stuart painted her portrait as three individuals together : with full face, 
three-quarter, and in profile. As I recollect her, she was rather stout and 
undersize. She wore a kind of cap or turban, with a wig, or black hair 
which seemed to have turned gray and was dyed, but I remember her 
eyes were very pretty. She always wore tight sleeves to her dress with a 
small puff at the top around the shoulder, while the fashion then was the 
leg-of-mutton shaped sleeve, as it was called. 

Her bedroom was on the second story, just over the front door and 
facing the stairway. All the children knew her, and on passing she 
would call or beckon them in, after her breakfast, about noon. She 
would be seated in front of the open door of her room, which I recollect 
was like a street or front door, with small panes of glass on each side from 
the floor to the top. On a small table by her side she always had a jar 
of jam or jelly, which she dispensed to the children, a teaspoonful at a 
time. Then she would say, "Be off, be off; quick, quick." And if we 
did not "step lively," she would playfully give us a rap on the forehead 
with the spoon. Fortunately, the spoon was clean, at least apparently, 
for this by-play, as she generally turned the spoon and had the concavity 
licked out, to be clean for the next recipient. 

I very soon "caught on" to the possibility of a second teaspoonful, 
and would quickly go down the stair and come up the other side, and 
saunter by her door as if I had never heard of Madame Bonaparte. 
When she called, I would turn, and as if a stranger, would exhibit some 
degree of reluctance at going into the bedroom of a stranger, but would 
always yield, and with a perfectly straight face I would open my mouth 
like a young robin and take the second helping. She never seemed to 
recognize me, or if my face became familiar she must have thought there 
was a strong family resemblance among the boys. She sometimes varied 
the form of refreshment by giving a small kind of sweet biscuit with 
pointed edges, or three colored peppermint drops to each. She never 



.70 Incidents of my Life 

petted nor kissed the children, and it seemed to be her pleasure or fancy 
only to get the better of the nurses, when she could give the children these 
things without their knowledge. The old lady was treated by every one 
with the greatest deference, but she did not seem to have any intimate 
friends who would laugh and joke with her, and she seemed to be almost 
always alone, at least while she was in her private parlor. 

I do not know how I became acquainted with or should recollect, 
Mr. Hone, although my father knew him very well. His remarkable 
and interesting diary, which was published some years ago, shows that 
he entertained all strangers of consequence coming to the city, who always 
called on him as soon as they arrived, and to the people of the city he was 
probably better known, at least by sight, than any one else. He had 
been the Mayor of the city some years before and was very popular. I 
recollect his house on the west side of Broadway opposite the City Hall. 
The transom light above his front door projected as a half-circle and it 
seemed as if the wooden strips between the panes of glass, as they radiated 
from the centre, were to represent the rays of a rising sun. Mr. Hone 
never exchanged a word with me so far as I recollect, but in some way I 
had attracted his notice, and on passing me he would always, with a 
smile, place his hand on the top of my head. It was evidently not 
intended for a blessing, but I always felt like resenting an apparent 
familiarity when our acquaintance had been so limited a one. 

For some reason unknown to me, we had an Irish woman as nurse, 
instead of the negro woman who came with us and who returned with us 
to Virginia. She was either sick or remained at the house of one of the 
family in consequence of the Abolitionists, who annoyed her greatly and 
wanted to make her run away, or she feared they intended to carry her 
off. The Irish nurse had told me that Mr. Hone was Governor of New 
York, or she may have said he had been Mayor. I, however, recollect 
often wondering to myself how he could govern any one without soldiers 
or policemen about him. I suppose the instinct of my Irish blood 
asserted itself, as in that unhappy country for centuries the government, 
under all circumstances, had been associated alone with coercion or force. 

The little girl was a sister of the late DeGrasse Fowler and her grand- 
mother was a Miss DePau, a descendant of Admiral DeGrasse, and her 
family history I will give at some length in relation to the Livingstones. 
Our nurses were either related or old friends and from this circumstance 
we were frequently thrown together. Since that time our families have 
become connected by marriage. Madame Fowler has been a nun in the 
Order of the Sacred Heart since she was a young woman, and is still living 
as a member of the Community located at the Fenwood Convent near 
Albany. Her chief occupation, outside of her religious duties, has been 



Prince Street and Broadway 71 

in the management of the money affairs of the Order and she was a 
remarkably bright and intelHgent woman. 

On our return from Rockaway, we spent several weeks with Uncle 
LeRoy and his wife, who lived in Prince Street, on the upper side of the 
way and about one hundred feet from Broadway. It might be said that 
he lived almost in the country, for there were very few houses in Broad- 
way above Canal Street, and with the exception of the house next door, 
where Mr. Astor had his office for managing the affairs of his estate, 
there was not a house on that side nearer than Mercer Street. Out of 
the back windows of the house there was an unobstructed view over to 
what is now Washington Square, then surrounded by a high board fence. 
It had been used as a burial place during an epidemic of cholera and 
yellow fever a few years before. Directly opposite was a large circular 
brick building in which was shown a panorama of the city of Jerusalem, 
and one, I believe, of the Mississippi River. From above Bleecker Street 
to the Battery was run every half hour a stage owned by Kipp and 
Brown, and the fare was twenty -five cents. I made ^an early acquaint- 
ance with the guard, who occupied a perch at the back of the stages to 
collect fares, and wotdd often walk some distance down Broadway to 
meet one and ride back, standing on the steps. 

I do not recollect if Broadway was paved, but I do remember that it 
was like a country road down to Canal Street, with the dust ankle deep. 
In this neighborhood there were a number of Lombardy poplar trees 
along the sides of Broadway. It was then a common tree all over the 
country, but now seldom seen. In France for centuries, this tree was as 
it is at present, a prominent object against the sky, marking the course 
of the roads as the steeple of a church. After Lafayette's visit to this 
country in 1824, and his return to France, he sent to his friends a large 
number of cuttings, and the tree became in demand for planting along 
the roadsides at the South, and throughout the country. It grew rapidly 
and was one of the tallest trees to be seen, when I was a boy, but it gave 
little shade. In France it has propagated itself by its pollen, blown about, 
but, imfortunately, only one kind was sent to this country, as if all the 
slips had been cut from the same tree, and as it was not long-lived the 
Lombardy poplar has now died out. 

At a later visit, probably the following summer, I recollect seeing the 
famous Ravel pantomime troop from France, which gave exhibitions at 
Niblo's Garden, then covering the block on Broadway to Crosby and 
between Prince and Bleecker streets. This plot was filled with large 
forest trees and was lit up by colored lamps hanging in every direction. 
At night the spectacle was an enchanting one, and especially if it hap- 
pened that the moon was full. 



72 Incidents of my Life 



Between the acts in the theatre every one would go out onto the 
grounds and have ice cream, or any other refreshment served, while 
the orchestra played, and one of the troop danced on a tight rope 
stretched above the level of the housetop. The use of illiominating 
gas had but recently been introduced and I imagine the fixtures were yet 
of a primitive form, for the smell of gas was dominant, but the odor, 
like the smell of the not always savory tan-bark at the circus, was so 
closely associated with my enjoyment that I got to like the smell of both. 

I was taken to the Park Theatre to see, I think, Fanny EUsler or 
some other great dancer. 

I recollect also seeing that night Tyrone Power, the great Irish actor. 
I do not recall the name of the play or anything in connection except a 
scene where three old Irishwomen were drinking tea together. One of 
them turned to her neighbor with a beaming face, and said, "And don't 
tha ta take an iUegant grip of the third warther?" Mr. Power was a 
friend of Judge Robert Emmet, and he often stayed at his house. Shortly 
after seeing Mr. Power, he was lost in the President, the third steamer 
to run between New York and England; she never was heard of after 
sailing. Mr. Power had retired from the stage and was on his way to 
Ireland for the ptirpose of bringing his family back to this country 
where he had decided to make his future home. 

I suppose my father wished me to have the satisfaction in after-life of 
being able to recall having seen these notable persons. But being on 
the go all day, these nights out were not an vmalloyed pleasure, as I was 
often overpowered with sleep and it was necessary at times to let me 
have at least forty winks. I also went to the old Bowery Theatre where 
some great actor, probably the elder Booth, was acting ; of Httle interest 
to me, but I was charmed with the pit, now in all theatres transformed 
into the parquet. The pit was not unlike showing the cellar of the build- 
ing, with part of the first floor removed. It was paved with large cobble- 
stones as the streets were, and with rows of movable wooden benches for 
the audience to test their pocket-knives on by constant whittling; and 
these benches were convenient to break up in case of a fight. All were 
in their shirt-sleeves, and when their mouths were not filled with tobacco 
and peanuts, they were shouting to each other at the top of their voices, 
or calling out some criticism to any one in the audience above who had 
attracted their attention, or were saying something likely to create a 
laugh. Their chief pastime between the acts, when not fighting, was to 
catch up a stranger or countryman, and toss him from hand to hand 
over their heads until they were forced from fatigue to desist. The 
recipient of their attention was fortunate, when this sportive by -play was 
brought to an end, that enough clothing remained on him after his escape 



City Improvements under Tweed 73 

to pass along the street in quest of shelter and rest. The entrance fee 
was what was termed a York shilling, or twelve and a half cents, and it 
was then the privilege of the great unwashed and shifting population of 
the city to enjoy the best position in the theatre for both seeing and 
hearing. 

I recall the bust of Shakespeare which occupied a niche in the front 
of the Park Theatre and afterward did service for years on the younger 
Booth's Theatre, which stood at the comer of Twenty-third Street and 
Sixth Avenue. I remember also, as curiosities of this neighborhood, two 
large stone cannon-balls, which had been presented to the City of New 
York, I think, by Decatur or Bainbridge, after the Algerine War, and 
during Jefferson's administration. They were placed on the top of each 
post of the southern gate of the City Hall Park, and on the site now 
covered by the Post-Office. These balls were unusually large, and greater 
in diameter than any cannon in this country and must have been intended 
to be fired from a mortar. They were removed, and for some years after 
were on the gateway of Union Square Park, facing Broadway. When 
the high fences around all the parks of the city were removed, during 
Tweed's administration, these balls disappeared. We are indebted to 
the good taste of Tweed and his associates for this great improvement 
in removing the fences, as well as for many others, including the Central 
Park, as an offset to the high estimate they were charged with placing 
on the value of their services. 

During a visit of several weeks made by my father and mother 
to Saratoga and Niagara Falls, I spent the time with my uncle, Mr. 
T. A. Emmet, and family, at his country place on Third Avenue. My 
cousins regarded my visit with great satisfaction as they were short- 
handed. There had been a feud of long standing between them and 
the boys of a neighboring ropewalk. These young ropemakers were 
at that time almost too much for my cousins and my arrival was an 
important event to them. From my constant association in early life 
on a farm with the negro boys, I soon became an expert at butting. Why 
my skull was not fractured I can offer no explanation, as in later life I 
have known of the injury occurring from apparently much less force 
than my head could bear at that time, and without causing me the 
slightest inconvenience. 

As soon as my father and mother returned we had to hasten back, as 
the course at the University was about to begin. I continued my studies, 
as I had done for several years, under a private tutor my father had en- 
gaged after the death of my brother, and my sister had been sent to a 
boarding school. My teacher was a Dr. Conway, a son of one of the 
hotel-keepers for the students at the University, whom my father regarded 



74 Incidents of my Life 

as a man of great promise. He had gone through the Hterary course and 
graduated in the medical department of the University, and while 
teaching me was a private student of my father for the study of Organic 
Chemistry. He was patient and painstaking, but somehow I made but 
little progress. At length Dr. Conway entered the navy as surgeon and 
was ordered to Norfolk for service on the U. S. schooner Grampus > 
which sailed shortly on a cruise and was never heard of after. 

The following year we again visited New York and part of the summer 
of 1839 was spent at Babylon, on the south side of Long Island, with a 
number of the family making so large a party as to nearly fill the little 
hotel. Among them was my imcle, Mr. WilHam C. Emmet, with his 
wife and several children. My aunt, Mary Ann, the wife of Mr. Edward 
B. Graves, and her sister, Miss Margaret Emmet, who was then staying 
with her, formed the party. As usual the family took possession of 
the place to the great enjoyment of the other guests and natives, as 
each day was made an uninterrupted round of fun. I recollect that we 
were all invited to attend the marriage of the daughter of the light- 
house keeper on Fire Island, then a most desolate looking place. We 
were entertained in a most imconventional manner, but with a hearty 
welcome and every one enjoyed the day to the utmost. I recollect the 
bride wore no stockings, and danced every reel with her husband to 
the music of an old Irish fiddler, who had been especially secured for the 
occasion. She took good care to hold her petticoat well up and out of 
the way, so that it should in no manner impair her action in doing full 
justice to every step, and I think she must have had a nice foot, ankle, 
and more, for it seemed to me as a boy she did not hesitate to show what 
she was made of. 

Before leaving New York my father was made happier than most 
children with a new toy by the arrival from abroad of a pair of india- 
rubber-cloth boots and a daguerreotype instrument, just invented in 
Paris. At the time he thought that no one had preceded him in the 
importation of either. The late Professor Draper, the scientist, of 
New York, has the credit of being the first to use the instnmient in this 
country, but I do not know to whom the credit is due. This process 
was the taking of a likeness by the action of light on a silvered plate, 
instead of on paper as to-day. With his profound knowledge of Physics 
and his wonderful mechanical skill he set about perfecting the instru- 
ment, which he claimed was defective, but I do not know what he 
accomplished. He took a ntmiber of likenesses to the marvel of all who 
were not familiar with the process, and on his return to Virginia he 
terrified the negroes outside of our own family to such a degree that they 
became convinced he must have had some relation with the Old Boy, 



Seeking a School 75 



and fled from^him on sight, for fear he would "hoodoo" them in some 
way. 

My father took the greatest enjoyment in his rubber boots, and spent 
most of his time standing like a heron in the water to test them. Their 
shape was not such as would have fascinated Packelan, the famous boot- 
maker. They were made like a long stocking of coarse canvas, with a 
leather sole, and over all was smeared a paste of rubber which might 
have answered in cold weather, but was rather tenacious to all handhng 
under a moderately hot sun. In very few articles has there been more 
improvement than in the perfection of india-rubber goods during the 
past seventy years or more, since they first came into use. My father 
took back with him a "rain-coat " as a present to our old negro coachman, 
but he could never be induced to wear it in the rain, and when expostu- 
lated with, his answer was "Does you tink I is gwine ware dis new coat in 
de rain?" He never wore it but in the bright sunshine and on a warm 
day, so that when he got off the box at the stable it was necessary to 
take with him the cushion and remove his trousers before he could get 
his coat off. 

I recollect as a child the first "gum shoes" in use, which were hideous 
to look at and most uncomfortable over a shoe, but to the bare feet 
of the old negroes who suffered from various excrescences, they were a 
joy and a comfort. The first rubber shoe was shaped like a large sausage, 
and from one end along the side a piece was removed for the introduction 
of the foot, and after its insertion the elasticity shaped itself accordingly. 

They were always called "gum shoes," and I recall, when a medical 
student and present at the opening of the noted Girard House in Phila- 
delphia, there were placed printed notices at each entrance with the 
request, "Please wipe your gums on the mat." 

The question of my- education became a serious one with my father 
at this period. As there were no advantages of education in Virginia 
for a boy of my age, he decided to seek a good school at the North, and 
our first trip was to Hartford, Conn., by steamboat. 

The mode of conveyance was impressed on me as but a short time 
before one of these boats had been destroyed by fire and nearly every one 
on board perished. It was before the railroad had been built beyond 
Harlem, and the boat was decided upon, as so much longer time would 
have been occupied by stage-coach. There was at that time a noted 
school for boys at Hartford, and my father was fully impressed before- 
hand that it would not be necessary to go further. An immediate inter- 
view was effected on our arrival. I saw that my father was particularly 
impressed with the dominie's views as to the necessity for looking to the 
physical development of the boys. On sight I took no stock in him, as he 



76 Incidents of my Life 

was too oily and affectionate on a short acquaintance. While he was 
playing my father, with the satisfaction of a successful angler, I slipped 
out and got on speaking terms with the first boys I met. I then learned 
for the physical development of the boys they were obliged to do all the 
gardening, dig the potatoes, keep the grounds in order, and to cut or saw 
all the wood, and do all the other menial work, as he kept no servants, 
and Madam did the cooking. So long as there was any work outside 
to be done the boys were ' ' excused " from school. I heard also complaints 
as to the food, both as to quality and quantity. I rettu-ned to my father 
and requested a private interview, on which the "Master" was obliged 
to leave the room and to apply, as I knew he would, both ear and eye to 
the keyhole. I told my father what I had heard, that I was satisfied 
the whole establishment was a humbug, and if he left me there I should 
leave as soon as I could get off. 

He looked at me steadily for a moment, and then putting his hand 
on my head, he said, "My son, you are probably correct. " The keyhole 
explorer had evidently got out of the way on hearing my report, so that 
when we went out into the entry he was not about and we left the house 
without bidding him farewell. 

After returning to New York, my father decided to place me at St. 
Thomas's Hall, near Flushing, Long Island, kept by the Rev. Dr. Francis 
L. Hawks, a man of great literary attainments and reputation. At 
the time he was also in charge of St. Thomas's Episcopal Church, then 
on the corner of Broadway and Houston Street. My father and mother 
visited the school and were very much pleased. When I arrived and 
reported to Dr. Hawks, I found him a gentleman and civil enough, and 
after a very dignified interview, he gave me directions where to find 
the dining-room. Just as I was leaving, he called me back and asked 
me if I had any money. With some foreboding I answered that I had 
a five- dollar gold piece which my father had given me on leaving, and I 
might have added it was prized all the more as it was the first five dollars 
I had ever owned. He took it from me and dropped into it his vest 
pocket, stating he would have it placed to my credit at the office, as he 
wished to use it for the purpose of teaching me business methods, so that 
I could in the future draw it out by check from time to time as I needed 
it ! The only lesson I learned from the transaction was to exercise more 
care for the future in my "business transactions." On my first appli- 
cation at the office for a blank check, I had my ears boxed and was ordered 
out. The old fossil bookkeeper had evidently never heard of his expected 
duties in the banking line, and thought I was up to some impertinence; 
and to this day I have never received a cent from my five-dollar gold 
piece ! 



Dissatisfied with the School 77 

The worthy Doctor was so much respected by many friends that 
charity would dictate he fully intended to keep his promise and to insti- 
tute an additional branch for instruction, but evidently he gave the 
matter no further thought after we parted and he was consequently five 
dollars to the better, at my loss. 

After I had gotten my dinner, I followed the boys to the playground. 
As soon as I entered the gate I saw that there was to be trouble and 
waited for the signal. There were a number of fires in different parts, 
where many of the boys were engaged in roasting potatoes and chestnuts. 
Soon I was tripped up and my arms and legs were seized by four boys 
who proceeded to swing me against a neighboring tree, until I thought 
my spine might be driven into my skull. At length from exhaustion I 
was dropped, but before I could get on my feet I was seized by another 
party and had nearly all my hair singed off my head, but before the entire 
removal could be accomplished, those at my head had to retreat for 
their clothing suffered from the fire. As soon as I gained my footing, 
I became self-assertive in establishing a modus vivendi, and after a busy 
afternoon, I succeeded in gaining the goodwill of a number of boys who 
became afterward my fast friends. 

Shortly after I entered the school I became ill from fever and ague, 
from which at that time almost every one throughout the country 
suffered during some part of the year. One of the professors, a Mr. Neil- 
son, who had a cottage, took me from the infirmary and put up a bed for 
me in his parlor, where his wife nursed and cared for me during several 
weeks. I have since learned he was the son or grandson of Samuel 
Neilson, who settled at Poughkeepsie and died there. Madden states 
positively that Mr. Neilson had only a daughter with him, and that no 
other member of his family came to this country, yet his grandson must 
have done so in later years. Mr. Neilson was one of the leaders in the 
so-called Irish Rebellion of 1798, and was confined as a political prisoner 
by the British Government, with my grandfather, in Fort George, Scot- 
land. I was thankful to them for their kindness and became very much 
attached to Mrs. Neilson, but did not at that time know anything of 
their history. Although he did tell me something of the family relations, 
I was not, as a boy, impressed enough with the importance to mention 
the circumstance to my father. I have never known what became of 
them after the Squeers'-hke breakup of the school, some months after. 
The only return I was ever able to make for the kindness of this estimable 
couple was within a few years, when I became the means of having the 
forgotten grave of Mr. Samuel Neilson identified. I also succeeded in 
having the attention of one of the Irish societies of Poughkeepsie directed 
to the situation, so that recently over his place of burial a substantial 



78 Incidents of my Life 



monument has been erected by the members of the local branch of the 
Ancient Order of Hibernians. 

I was still very weak and feeling good for nothing when I was directed 
to return to my studies, if the term be applicable. The class had gone 
ahead and I found myself unable to keep up and therefore became 
thoroughly discouraged. This caused me to write home and request 
of my father permission to return as soon as the term was finished. 

I recall this portion of my life with an interest not free from feelings 
of sadness, as I did not then know what a rapid change had taken place 
in my father's health since I had last seen him. The first letter of com- 
plaint to my father led to a series of letters which brought us to a closer 
relation than would otherwise have existed. His admonitions, coming 
as they did almost from the brink of the grave, were productive of better 
results than he himself could have anticipated. The recollection of my 
father's love and entire confidence was a constant incentive in after-life 
to accomplish what would have met with his approval. The last letter 
written by him to me, on December 13, 1841, was certainly well calcu- 
lated to bring about good results in any boy, as soon as he could think 
and appreciate what his father expected of him. 

In reference to my illness my father wrote, September 21, 1841 : 

I trust that you have by this time fully recovered and that you feel stout 
and resolute about your studies. Believe me that I shall look to your future 
letter-writing with the greatest interest and shall remark with a father's 
pleasure every new token of improvement. We have a great deal to learn 
and were we to comprehend, at the commencement, the full extent of the 
task we should no doubt weary often and become frightened or dispirited, 
but then we also have a great deal of time for studying. You need not over- 
tax yourself when at school, or strain to do a great deal in a very short time; 
this is not the way to acquire patience or resolution. Go along steadily, 
never be absolutely idle, and when you begin to study, turn all your attention 
to the task. I will say this for you, my dear son, that I have always felt good 
reason to rely upon you and I am very sure that you will not disappoint me 
when you understand my wishes. 

You request me to enquire how your pets are getting on. Judging from the 
cat's placid exterior, while reposing upon the kitchen roof in the strong sun- 
shine, I should say that she was well to do in this world and not liable to any 
heartrending emotions. Your dog has quit the premises, either as a defaulter 
or vagrant, and I can give no further account of him than that he fancies Joe 
Woodley before any other since you have withdrawn your protection. 

October 22, 1 841, he wrote: 

I have been disposed to attribute your pressing request to go home after 



Correspondence 79 

a year, to this melancholic feeling which has beset you, and with the view of 
placing your proposition on its right footing, I will ask you whether you have 
not often noticed a piece of beef that had been roasted in a hurry and before 
too strong a fire? It may be done tolerably well on the outside, but it is 
absolutely raw within. 

Could you relish such meat and praise the cook? Certainly not. One 
year's schooling will make you like this roast beef, and were you then to return 
to me, I should be extremely mortified at not being able to find anything to 
praise, and still more so if I find that you were satisfied with your condition. 
As your father I educate you not so much because your attainments may be a 
source of pride and gratification to myself, but because I know the value of 
such knowledge to yourself. 

You are now too young to know that a highly cultivated mind is more 
valuable than anything in the nature of wealth. But you have a good under- 
standing, good habits, good disposition, and moreover, the full confidence of 
your father and mother. So that I feel satisfied when you have completed 
one year at your school, you will never rest contented with so humble and 
low-minded a termination of your studies as you now contemplate. 

The following letter was the last one ever received from my father, 
who when writing it could have Uttle realized that the seed he was then 
planting would bear good fruit and that his admonitions would exercise 
such a salutary influence on his son's after-life. During my boyhood, 
in youth, and even in manhood I have many times re-read and studied 
the contents of this letter to appreciate its full bearing, and deep have 
been the regrets on my part that I should ever have caused my father an 
anxious moment : 

University of Virginia, December 13, 1841. 
Dear Addis : 

Last Friday evening we received your last letter, written to myself, and 
were very sorry to learn that you had another attack of fever and ague. I 
presume that you exposed yourself too much when you went skating. By 
remaining too long in the cold, or by getting your feet wet, you will always 
incur the risk of an immediate attack. I trust that the disease has been re- 
moved by this time, and you may prevent its recurrence by continuing to take 
the quinine for a week or two. Your letter has caused me uneasiness from 
another cause. We had begun to think that your good sense had made you 
become reconciled to your school. The letter from you which produced this 
impression on us, pleasant and gratifying I can assure you, was written cheer- 
fully, and in it you declare your wish to remain at Mr. Hawks's school for 
two years. But in your last letter, to which this is an answer, you wish to 
take back your words by telling me that when you wrote the former letter 
you were under the influence of sickness and did not know what you did. 

Now Addis, I am much older than you are and will tell you candidly my 



8o Incidents of my Life 

opinion. I do not think that you wish to deceive me, but most certainly 
you have allowed your good sense and judgment to be changed by the opinion 
of some of your school-fellows who are either somewhat idle or do not like to 
submit to the riiles and discipline of the school. 

It is not usual for people to write so cheerfully and contented a letter as 
your first one while under the influence of sickness, and without being conscious 
of what was done. 

Your last letter shows much more of the feeling you allude to ; for you show 
the depression of feeling brought on by your sickness, but you also show the 
discontent which is always so distinguishable when one's judgment and good 
sense have been tampered with. Now, my dear Addis, go back to your 
original feeling and learn again to become contented with your situation. 
Whenever any person tells you that the school is a humbug tell him that 
your father considers it quite good enough for you, and that you would stay 
there five years if this were necessary to please him. Never be rude, dogged, 
or self-siifficient, but do, my dear boy, at once endeavor to acquire indepen- 
dence of character and firmness of purpose in all matters recommended by 
those who are not only older than yourself, but who value your welfare 
more than they do their own. 

I do not send you to school to kill time and waste my slender income. 
Idlers and loungers dislike to be confined and restrained, but good boys soon 
learn to know that the habit of study, which leads to knowledge and distinc- 
tion, can only become well established by discipline. If I were to take you 
away, which could only be done at a great sacrifice, you could not return home 
because there is no school here of which I approve. Make up your mind, 
therefore, to be separated from us for some time yet, and endeavor to shorten 
that time, as much as possible, by attention to your studies. 

Think yourself fortunate, moreover, that your father is alive, willing and 
able to confer upon you all the blessings of education. 

If all this does not give you resolution and a feeling of noble ambition, 
think of the fact that hereafter your mother and sister may have to look to you 
alone as their only support upon earth ! My health is slowing giving way and, 
even while now writing to you, I am afflicted with a disease which is killing 
thousands in this country! And what would be your situation if now, or 
some few years hence, I were to be removed? Are you prepared to support 
your mother and sister? Or will you ever be able to do so if you waste the 
present time in idle complaints or vain regrets? Turn, my dear boy, at 
once a deaf ear to all those whose counsel or opinion tends to make you dis- 
contented, and determine to judge for yourself at the end of the season. . . . 
I must confess, my dear Addis, I have been so impressed by the belief that 
some one of your young friends has caused this change in your feelings that 
I have devoted the largest portion of my letter to the expression of my regret 
and disappointment. There is, however, but little news to add. We are 
well at present, with the exception of myself, and my health has greatly im- 
proved within the past week. 



Father's Failing Health 8i 

Your sister Jane is doing very well and what is perhaps necessary for suc- 
cess at school, she is contented. I hope that your next letter will inform us 
of your entire recovery from sickness and that you will feel again disposed to 
declare your manly resolution in relation to your duties. 

Your devoted father and best adviser, 

J. P. Emmet. 
Master Thomas Addis Emmet; 
Care Rev. F. Hawks, 
Flushing, L. I. 

While a young lad my father suffered in Ireland from an attack of 
small-pox and several other eruptive diseases in close sequence, with the 
result that his lungs were never after in good condition, nor was he ever 
a strong man physically. But on his arrival in this country, and as he 
developed into manhood, he improved greatly and sufficiently to be able 
to pass an examination for admission as a cadet to West Point. In con- 
sequence of his advanced knowledge of mathematics, after he had entered 
West Point he was detailed as a teacher or assistant professor of that 
branch. There was a salary attached of sufficient amount to induce 
him to neglect the advance of his own military studies, so that he never 
graduated. At the end of three years his health began to fail and he was 
obliged to resign his position and seek a restoration by residing for 
several years in Italy. There he studied art, and became proficient in 
music and painting; he was also successful as a sculptor and acquired a 
knowledge of Italian. He also regained a knowledge of French, which 
he had spoken as a child while living with his grandfather. Dr. Robert 
Emmet. Dr. Emmet and his three sons and a daughter spoke Latin and 
French quite as well as English, and the two languages were used indis- 
criminately in their family intercourse. 

On the return home of my father, he began the study of medicine, 
but on graduating his health was again so much impaired that he settled 
in Charleston, South Carolina, to practise. He there gave to the public 
so popular a course of lectures on physics that Mr. Jefferson, then organ- 
izing the University of Virginia, offered him the Chair of Natural History. 
He accepted, but afterwards the subject was divided up and he was given 
Chemistry, which he taught for nineteen years. 

During the winter of 1841, and while I was at Dr. Hawks's school, 
my father's health failed entirely and his lungs were again involved, and 
with such rapidity that within a few days after writing to me the last 
letter which I have quoted, he, with my mother, went to Florida. He 
received a vote of sympathy from the Faculty, signed by the chairman, 
Henry St. George Tucker, the Professor of Law, and also resolutions, 
hoping for his restoration, signed by all the members of his class. 



82 Incidents of my Life 

During the winter at school I continued to drag through a weary- 
course and to me, on account of the confinement, my surroundings were 
most uncongenial. The Christmas holidays I spent with the family in 
New York and they were marked by the remembrance of an interesting 
circumstance. Three of my uncles then lived in Broome Street, between 
Centre and Elm, a fashionable neighborhood at that time. One of them 
sent me to deliver a letter on some business matter to the clergyman then 
in charge of St. Mark's Church on Second Avenue. I think the Rev. 
Dr. Anthon held the position, and did so for many years after. I was 
shown into his study and found there my schoolmaster. Dr. Hawks, who 
was visiting his friend. Before either saw me as I stood to be recognized, 
I heard the clergyman say to Dr. Hawks, who had a book in his hand 
and evidently wished to borrow it: "Hawks, you know that there is 
nothing I possess I would not give you if I could spare it, but I will lend 
you neither a book nor umbrella, for a man who never returns either is 
totally unreliable and this book I cannot spare." My presence was then 
recognized, when I stepped forward, delivered the letter, and having an- 
swered a question or two as to my uncle's health, made a bow to both 
and departed. 

This episode, founded upon some experience of human nature, im- 
pressed me as a boy to such an extent as to make a profound impression, 
and has never been forgotten. The loss of a book did not then appear to 
me as of so great importance as it would have done in after years, but 
I at once learned a practical lesson as to the necessity, as weU as fair 
play, in relation to the return of an umbrella. I thought a man having 
an umbrella, and one presumably paid for by him, certainly was placed 
in an unjust position if obliged to go out and get wet through the neglect 
of one who had not returned the borrowed umbrella, after being placed 
under an obligation. 

Naturally I did not see any other evidence of cause and effect from the 
neglect to return the umbrella. I would have expressed my opinion at 
the time, if asked, that any man who would leave his friend in the lurch 
and not return the umbrella in time was of "no account." From that 
day to the present time, having either a borrowed book or umbrella in 
my possession, I have never been satisfied until I have returned it to the 
owner. 

There were between four and five hundred boys in the school while 
I was there, and a number of them became prominent in after-life, but 
there was only one boy of the whole in whom I afterwards took the 
slightest interest, and that was Tom Bayard, of Delaware. The desks 
in the schoolrooms were arranged two together, with a passageway on 
each side. Bayard was at my elbow during the whole term, and this 



Tom Bayard 83 

caused a constant companionship. Although our Hnes in life were 
widely separated after leaving school, and we often did not meet in an 
interval of ten years, yet the one or the other would be moved from time 
to time to write in the spirit of old schoolmates, into which the interest 
of the world did not enter. The friendship of our school days was never 
lessened, but became the stronger with each advancing year. To those 
who knew him as I did. Bayard was as lovable a character as a true 
woman, and I could add nothing more in his praise. While he was 
Minister to England, toward the close of his life, he became a little too 
Anglicized for my taste, but I only remembered him to the last as dear 
old Tom Bayard, the intimate friend of my boyhood, who carried my 
love with him to his death, and has had my prayers since. 



Chapter VII 



My father and mother return from Florida — Much benefited — Stopped in Charleston, S. C, 
to see old friends — Decided to return to New York by sea — Obliged to take a sailing 
vessel, as one passenger steamer had recently been burned and the other had foundered 
at sea, with great loss of life — Detained and too late for the regular sailing packet, which 
was never heard of after — Sailed on the brig Catherine — Dismantled and wrecked off 
Cape Hatteras — Passengers suffered from privation and exposure — Over five weeks at 
sea before rescued— My father remained with his brother on Third Avenue — Harlem 
Railroad — Some description of "the lay of the land" in the neighborhood and to 50th 
Street — Sudden breaking up of Dr. Hawks's school — My uncle's family of boys — The 
Mount Vernon "Gang" not bad boys, but always ready for a fight — An account of one 
of their engagements — The Rev. Mr. Gage did not appreciate the civilities extended to 
him — Description of the land now covered by the Central Park — My aunt's charities 
and her work as Lady Bountiful among the poor — Go duck-shooting and the conse- 
quences — Sir Henry Clinton's headquarters at the Beekman House, in the neighborhood 
— Old Cato's house on the Boston Turnpike, the headquarters of Clinton's body-guard — 
Capt. Nathan Hale's capture and execution — History of the transportation of cannon 
and powder from Ticonderoga to Boston — Gen. Knox could only have given the order — 
Battle of Bunker Hill— Visited the McEvers family at Mont Alto— The Bloomingdale 
Episcopal Church and St. James's, then on Hamilton Square — Sale'of this square by the 
city — Nearly all purchased by the Jews, who for the first time began to hold real estate 
in this country — Took the place of the fourteenth guest at a dinner given by my uncle — 
Reference to Mr. August Belmont as a young man and to Mr. Adrian Iselin, Sr., who were 
present — My uncle's method of impressing me with the importance of using a dictionary 
to improve my spelling. 




Y father, on his return from Florida, remained in 
Charleston for several weeks among his old friends, 
and having lost his cough and gained flesh he had 
apparently regained [his health, but he decided to 
make the voyage to New York and thus obtain the 
additional advantage from a sea trip. A short time 
before the two steamers which had plied ^between 
New York and Charleston had been lost, one by fire and the other by 
foundering at sea with a great loss of life, and at this time the only 
means of communication was the tedious route by stage line, or by sail- 
ing vessels. His passage was engaged in the regular packet, but my 
mother delayed their departure for a few moments in her desire to bring 

84 



Wrecked off Cape Hatteras 85 

with her some plants. On reaching the dock, the vessel had cast off but 
was within a few feet, yet the captain refused to delay long enough for 
them to be put aboard by means of a small boat. This vessel was never 
seen or heard of after crossing the bar. There happened to be sailing at 
the time an opposition vessel, the brig Catherine, which they reached 
in time, but were able to obtain only inferior accommodations. Cap- 
tain Nye was the name of the young man in command, who grew old in 
the employ of the Charleston Steamship Company, and, as the oldest 
officer in command, died probably within the past twenty years. 

A hurricane was encountered off Cape Hatteras, which took both 
masts out of the vessel and with the sea washing over her deck the whole 
supply of fresh water was lost with quite a large quantity of provisions. 
The captain was washed overboard, and he had on boots with his trousers 
strapped down over them, as was the fashion of the day. While under 
water he got his jack-knife opened and managed to get rid of his straps 
and boots. On reaching the surface, there was within reach, and secured 
to the vessel by a long rope, a life-preserver of the period, which had been 
washed overboard, consisting of a cask with lashings attached and with a 
light inside. The captain was able to pull himself on board and then 
set to work to clear the wreck, as the masts were pounding against her 
side. The passengers had to be placed on a short allowance of both 
food and water, and for want of the latter they would have perished from 
thirst but for several heavy rains from which a scant supply was obtained 
by spreading out some sails. They drifted for over five weeks without 
seeing a vessel. A jury-mast was at length rigged up upon which sail 
enough was set for the captain to come four times within sight of Sandy 
Hook, but was as often blown out to sea. At length, a tugboat on the 
look-out for her was able to reach the vessel and bring her up to the city. 
She had been recognized by her signal and her arrival reported each time 
as she appeared and disappeared. A number of the passengers died from 
exposure and I recollect a young lady, a Miss Pardoe, died as she was 
being brought ashore. Naturally, my father had suffered greatly, but 
he was still hopeful and expected soon to regain what he had lost. He 
went to Mount Vernon, the country place of his brother, Mr. Thomas A. 
Emmet. The six-milestone post, from the City Hall on the way to 
Boston, was about one hundred yards to the south. Opposite was the 
Adriance country place, and through its grounds a path led to about the 
present Fifty-ninth Street and Fourth Avenue ; to a station on the Har- 
lem Railroad, put there for my uncle's convenience, as he had been, or 
was, the president of the road. As a compliment to Mr. Emmet, all his 
family and those with him passed free over the road. There seemed 
to have been about four trains a day each way, and I recollect but one 



86 Incidents of my Life 

conductor, who must have made the eight trips. He was familiar with 
every one in the president's house as if he had been an employee, and 
seemed to have kept himself posted as to the guests, and passed each 
free. To reach the level of the track, which was on an embankment, it 
was necessary to ascend a stairway for thirty-five or forty feet, so that 
this portion of the city was filled in to Sixth or Seventh Avenue, 
well to the north for several blocks and down to Forty-ninth Street where 
a deep cut began towards Forty-second Street. At this point was the 
old deaf-and-dumb asylum, which building was long used afterward 
by Columbia College. Including the grounds of the asylum, and to the 
south and west, lay the Elgin garden tract, which had been a noted 
botanical garden laid out by the elder Dr. Hossack, and purchased from 
him by the city. I do not remember how this property passed from 
the city to Columbia College, the ground rent from which now forms a 
large portion of its revenue. 

While my father and mother were at sea and driven off the coast, 
it was feared the vessel had been lost, but of this I knew nothing until 
there was a sudden smash up at St.Thomas's Hall and I came to the city. 
For months we had seen but little of Dr. Hawks, and it was generally 
whispered about that there was something wrong. Consequently, both 
the discipline and the studies suffered. One morning after breakfast 
the boys were assembled and told the school would be closed at noon. 
All were placed in line and each in turn received a quarter of a dollar. 
This amount was sufficient to pay my passage to the city, and I went to 
my uncle's place to wait the arrival of my father and mother on any 
day after. 

As Dr. Hawks was a native of North Carolina, many of the boys were 
from the Southern States, South America, and Mexico, and all of them 
would have suffered but for the aid of people in the neighborhood, who 
looked after them until cared for by their friends. The Doctor failed 
for several hundred thousand dollars and had involved many of his 
friends, and yet within a short time after he went to New Orleans, and 
repeated the same experiment with the same result, thus fully demon- 
strating his business incapacity. 

My uncle had eight sons,two of whom were my seniors, and with often 
several boys in addition as visitors, generally brought home from school, 
so that the "Mt. Vernon gang, " as it was called by the other boys of the 
neighborhood, was able to hold its own. We were the masters of the 
field with all other "gangs" between the Bull's Head tavern and York- 
ville, with the exception of our old antagonists the "Ropewalk" boys. 
Since my onslaught in the butting line they had not been so aggressive 
as formerly and we were willing not to seek a change. In case of expected 



Boys Engage in Stand-up Fight 87 

trouble and when there was time to send for re-inforcements, we could 
always depend upon two sturdy aids and cousins, William and John, 
who had been with me at Hawks 's school, and were the sons of my eldest 
uncle, Judge Robert Emmet. He then lived in the upper portion of 
Jones's woods, opposite the eastern end of Blackwell's Island, in a house 
which formerly belonged to Recorder Richard Riker, the brother of Mrs. 
Dr. Macnevin. 

We were not very bad boys, nor were we ever guilty of wanton mis- 
chief, but were simply for having a good time and if there was any fun 
to be found anywhere we were in search of it. The greatest mischief we 
were guilty of and a terror to the gardener was when, as a swarm of locusts, 
we settled on the strawberry beds or raided the young fruit-trees. There 
were enough of us to get up a game of ball at any time and we simply 
amused ourselves with the resources within our circle. It is true we 
were always ready for a fight, but I do not think, as a rule, that we were 
ever the aggressors. We were frequently challenged by other boys to a 
stand-up fight, until each had had a turn, and such challenges we could 
never afford to decline, or our prestige would have been lost. On one 
occasion we were challenged to fight a gang headed by the son of some 
rumseller, the; proprietor of "Emmet's Retreat," in Odellsville, where 
the old Boston Turnpike crossed the Third Avenue about Forty-seventh 
Street. The time selected was the following Sunday afternoon in a 
nook near my uncle's place. We had just arrived on the ground, when 
the Rev. Mr. Gage appeared, who lived in the neighborhood and had 
gotten knowledge of the affair in some way. He was a mild-mannered 
man and very much respected, and quite a favorite with the boys as he 
often took a turn in a game of ball. He kindly admonished us about 
breaking the Sabbath and urged us to go home. We did not feel respon- 
sible for breaking the Sabbath, as the meeting had not been of our seek- 
ing, and to refuse to accept the challenge we all felt was not to be thought 
of. My uncle's eldest son, who was our leader and chief spokesman, with 
the instincts of a gentleman ready to make a sacrifice, and as some com- 
pensation to the clergyman for his disappointment in not being able to 
break up the meeting, offered as leader to waive his privilege in the 
reverend gentleman's favor. This privilege consisted in the right of 
selecting his antagonist by choosing the most formidable-looking among 
the opponents and of beginning the fight ! On the arrival of our adver- 
saries, poor Mr. Gage left us with sighs, and somewhat to our surprise, 
as we thought it but natural that curiosity would have prompted him 
to witness at least a round or two. 

At this period the central portion of the island was covered by a mass 
of rock and briar bushes, and particularly west of the present Fifth 



88 Incidents of my Life 

Avenue and throughout the region now included within the Central 
Park. In consequence of the large emigration to this country of people 
in the greatest poverty, before and after the great famine in Ireland, they 
were allowed as squatters to put up their shanties among these rocks, 
wherever they could find an unoccupied spot large enough to yield a 
potato patch in addition to shanty-room. The greater portion of these 
people seemed to be under the special protection of my uncle and his 
wife. It would be difficult to have found a couple better mated, or 
with more charity and good-will for suffering humanity. My aunt, who 
was a step-daughter of Dr. Macnevin, held a levee after breakfast for 
years in a basement room of her house, where she was truly a Lady 
Bountiful to these people, and no priest could ever have been closer 
identified with their temporal affairs than she was. She was consulted 
in regard to all their ailments, including all affecting the children and 
pigs; she was the arbitrator in many of their quarrels, and was said 
to have been particularly successful in persuading many who had suffered 
from "a spell of the drouth," to take the pledge of total abstinence. 
With her good counsel she furnished many with clothing, food, medicines, 
and money, and whenever she stood in need of more money her husband 
was always ready to aid her. 

One day a party of about ten of the boys with a single barrel shot- 
gun started out on a shooting expedition among these rocks. As I was 
the only one who knew anything about a gun, I was appointed Master 
of Ceremonies and to do the loading. In a small pond, probably part of 
the one now used in Central Park for skating we found a lot of ducks, 
and as there was apparently no habitation in the neighborhood, we came 
to the conclusion they were wild ducks, or ought to be wild. As they 
did not fly away after the first shot, I began to think they were tame 
ones, but we fired away and had nearly killed all the flock. Some of the 
boys were talking of getting their clothes off to bring ashore the dead, 
when we were suddenly stampeded and put on the run. A man with a 
stick as big as his finger began to dust our clothing in a most energetic 
manner, and while we were kept on the run with the dexterity of a shep- 
herd dog, he bunched us so that without showing partiality all were about 
equally the recipient of his attention. When we got in my uncle's 
grounds, he began to bewail, and exclaimed: "If I had known they was 
Mr. Emmet's childer they might have killed everyone of the ducks and 
with no fault at them. "^ He insisted on seeing my aunt, to make a 

' For the information of the proofreader and others I will state that this man was trans- 
lating from Irish into English, of which he probably knew little. There is no word in the Irish 
language to imply possession in the English sense, and it can only be translated by the word 
"at." This probably is the explanation why Froude, who likely did not understand the idiom, 
seemed to consider the Irish as being thievish by nature and to own everj'thing within arms' 



Place of Nathan Hale's Execution 89 

complaint, as we supposed, but it was to apologize. He was, however, 
fully paid for his ducks on his own valuation and went back to hunt up 
the gun which had been dropped in our flight, so that with him, at least, 
it was "all 's well that ends well." We were, however, in a demoralized 
condition for some days after our adventure and were not able to pose 
as martyrs, for my uncle and aunt, thinking we had been punished 
enough, never referred to the matter. We had at times suffered many 
reverses and defeats, but I can recall no other incident which had humili- 
ated us to the same degree, for we had been unable to show any fight in 
vindication of our self-respect. We were strong enough to have defended 
ourselves, and especially with the moral support of a shot-gun, but the 
attack was made in the rear and was so sudden and with such impetus 
we had no time in our demoralized condition to form a battle line. 

I shall now make reference to some historical incidents which may 
seem to the reader as having no connection with my life. I have more 
material at my command, relating directly to myself, than I can utilize, 
yet I bring forward these apparently irrelevant subjects from time to 
time as they have been of personal interest to me, and have occupied 
my attention in the effort to establish the truth in relation to them. I 
feel less hesitation in doing so as I am satisfied the details will be of 
interest to many of my readers. 

Adjoining my uncle's place toward the city, and on the old Boston 
Turnpike, stood a house about Fifty-eight Street, of historical interest, 
and which had been kept for the greater part of a century as a hostelry, 
by an old negro named Cato. During the Revolution and the occupation 
of New York by the English, General Sir Henry Clinton, the British com- 
mander-in-chief, always had his headquarters for the summer at the old 
Beekman House on the East River, north of Sixty-first Street, and his 
body-guard was billeted in the Cato house. After the battle of Long 
Island, when Washington had evacuated New York Island below Man- 
hattanville, it was necessary for him to have accurate information as to 
the movement of the English troops on Long Island. Captain Nathan 
Hale of Connecticut volunteered to obtain it for him as he was familiar 
with the country. He was finally betrayed, and taken prisoner near 
Oyster Bay, and brought over late one evening to the Beekman house 
and hung early the following morning as a spy. This staternent was 
verified some years ago by the publication of the diary of one of the 
officers of the guard quartered at the Cato house, but the only detail 
given was that Hale was hung in an apple-orchard. Across the road 
from the Cato house, when I was a boy, there was an apple-orchard which 

reach! The slang expression "It is up to you" or "at you," is but a translation of this Gaelic 
idiom. 



90 Incidents of my Life 



certainly antedated the period of the Revolution. On the nearest tree 
to the house, high enough from the ground, was a limb bare near the 
trunk, which would have afforded every advantage, and from that limb, 
I have no doubt, poor Hale was hung. There was an apple-orchard also 
in town across the road from the Provost Jail of the Revolution, after- 
ward the old Hall of Records, in the City Hall Park, and which was 
recently removed for the Subway. In consequence of this circumstance 
of an apple-orchard, the committee for erecting the present Hale statue 
decided to place it in the City Hall Park near the Post Office. But it is 
not probable that Hale would have been brought late at night six miles 
to the jail in the city and back a few hours after, to be hung out of town 
just after daylight. Where the guard was stationed there existed, beyond 
doubt, every facility for his confinement, and that the execution took place 
at the spot I have designated cannot be questioned on the circumstantial 
evidence. As I had raised the doubt of Hale ever having been in the 
city of New York, the late Mr. Parsons, the well-known cashier of the 
Chemical Bank, and who was interested in the erection of the statue, came 
to see me. 

As an evidence of my remarkable memory I will state an incident 
in relation to Mr. Parsons's visit. After the Hale matter had been talked 
over, he told me he had for years been anxious to obtain some informa- 
tion in relation to his grandfather. General Samuel H. Parsons, but had 
failed in Washington, and had met no one who could aid him. But 
he had been told if anyone could give him the information, I could. He 
had letters showing that his grandfather had brought the Ticonderoga 
cannon to Boston, which had been mounted on the American earth- 
works about the city, as well as much of the gunpowder used at the 
battle of Bunker Hill; in which battle the General had taken part, and 
yet he was absent from Boston only nine days. I told him that General 
Knox being a New England man and the writers of our history being 
from the same section, they gave him the credit of the undertaking, 
a duty which would never have been undertaken by a general officer. 
That General Knox's connection was confined to being the commander- 
in-chief of the artillery and he may have given the order, but that his 
grandfather brought the cannon and other munitions of war only from 
Springfield, Mass. Pointing in the direction, I said: "You will find on 
the top shelf, about the third or fourth from the far end, a pamphlet 
which will give you all the information you need. " Over thirty years 
before, I had obtained a local publication, giving an account of the trans- 
portation, and after reading it, had put it on the shelf and given the subject 
no farther thought. The dictator of the narrative was a very old man 
living near Ticonderoga, who stated his father took the contract and he. 



Life in Old Manhattanville 91 

as a young boy, drove one of the ox-teams. It was late in the season, 
and on crossing the river at Albany one of the cannon was lost from break- 
ing through the ice, and having gotten as far as Springfield, Mass., and 
the snow having melted, his father decided he would sustain less loss to 
abandon the contract. He was anxious to get back home to plough his 
land and get a crop in before it would be too late, so he abandoned the 
sleds which were stuck fast in the mud at Springfield. 

Toward the end of June, 1842, I spent a few days with my uncle, 
Bache McEvers, and his family at Mont Alto, above Manhattanville, 
I always enjoyed a visit to this house, as it was filled with young people, 
and the older ones were ever ready to forward and take a hand in any 
action to increase the enjoyment of their guests. I arrived on Saturday 
to pay my visit, a fact impressed on me by the occurrence of an incident 
the following day which made a lasting impression, the particulars of 
which I will detail farther on. I attended church the following day with 
the family, as was my custom in the old Bloomingdale Episcopal Church, 
about half way to the city, which was a large wooden building on the 
east side of the road, and entirely in the country at that time, but I have 
no means of designating its position. The family of my uncle, Thomas 
A. Emmet, living near the Third Avenue and Sixty -first Street, went to 
St. James's Episcopal Church, also a wooden building on a country road, 
now Sixty-ninth or Seventieth Street, and facing a large open space, 
called Hamilton Square. Set in the wall near my uncle's pew was a 
large stone slab giving his name among the founders of the church, which 
was built about 1834. This so-called Hamilton Square was intended 
to have been the site of one of the largest monuments in the country, to 
be erected to the memory of Alexander Hamilton. It extended from 
the east side of Sixty-sixth Street to the west side of Sixty-ninth Street, 
and from the Third to the Fourth Avenue. After having existed for 
nearly thirty years as one of the most desolate spots on Manhattan 
Island, it was sold by the city about the beginning of the Civil War. This 
was the largest sale of real estate ever made in this city, and for the first 
time the Jewish people became large holders of real estate, and, with 
the exception of the lots secured for public institutions, nearly the whole 
of this large tract passed into their hands. During the Civil War they 
were large purchasers of land, in both the North and South and for the 
first time in the history of these people. 

After lunch at the regular hour, preparations were made for a dinner 
party, as my uncle expected a number of gentlemen out from the city 
to dine with him at five o'clock. 

He had served his time as a clerk in the counting-house of some 
merchant in Hamburg and elsewhere in Europe, so that he spoke German 



92 Incidents of my Life 

and French and seemed to have had quite an extensive foreign acquaint- 
ance. During the summer he frequently had a number of young foreign- 
ers to dine with him, who were then starting their business career in the 
city. 

Some one disappointed him, leaving a vacant place, and I was called 
in at the last moment to take the fourteenth seat at the table. There 
were two young men I recollect at the dinner from having known them 
for so many years after and until their death. One was the late Mr. 
August Belmont, Senior, and the other the late Mr. Adrian Iselin, Senior, 
whom I remember seeing for the first time at one of my uncle's Sunday 
dinners. This was many years before the other Mr. Belmont was 
wounded by a bullet in the hip during his duel with one of the South 
Carolina Middletons. He was then a great beau and noted as a dancer, 
and from what I have seen of his dancing later in life, he must have been 
an expert as a young man. 

The dinner was rather a dull affair for me, as nothing was spoken but 
French and German, and the only consolation I got was one which 
always appeals to a hungry and growing boy, — getting an extra dinner. 

When the cloth was removed, the dessert was served and each had 
lit a cigar, my uncle took from his pocket a letter and it was passed froni 
one to another, with explosions of laughter from each in turn, for it 
seemed that all understood English. I of course laughed from a social 
instinct, without having the slightest idea where the joke came in or as to 
the occasion. When the letter reached me as the last one, to my horror 
I recognized it as one I had written my uncle several months before, in 
which the spelling was said to have been unique. At first, my indignation 
was great at being subjected to such a mortification, but my uncle ex- 
plained to me before these gentlemen, that he wished to make an indelible 
impression, which would not be done from simply speaking to me, and I 
have never forgotten the lesson. He then took out a pocket dictionary 
and presented it to me, urging that I should always look up every word 
when I was in doubt as to how it was spelled. 

I can correct proof hour after hour and my eye will detect any error 
in spelling, punctuation, or printing, and yet for nearly seventy years I 
have had to use the dictionary for hunting up the spelling of certain 
words every time I have used them, and som^e of them are the simplest 
in the vocabulary. 



Chapter VIII 



Celebration of the introduction of Croton water into New York, July 4, 1842 — Description 
of the overgrown village of New York at that time — Condition of the streets — The 
numerous street cries, more remarkable in New York than elsewhere — Nearly all the 
traffic of the town carried on in the streets by peddlers — The procession, its chief feature 
being the engines of the Volunteer Fire Department, with their musical bands — A man 
came in a boat through the pipes from Croton and was nearly drowned — Visit to the old 
house on the Middle Road, formerly occupied by my grandfather — My father's drawing 
of the parlor and family in 1818 as "An Evening at Home" and "Corporation Improve- 
ments" — My father decided to settle in Florida — Making arrangements to do so at the 
time of his death — My mother and I return to Virginia — Stopped at Norfolk — I saw 
the Pennsylvania, a 120-gun ship of the U. S- N., the largest ship which had then been 
built — She was thought to be unsafe and too large for service — She could now be put 
inside of the hull of some of the passenger ships sailing from the port of New York — 
My life at the University presented no prospects for the future, and I went to New York 
in 1843 to enter my uncle's counting-house as soon as a place could be made for me —Saw 
a good deal of Mr. Clement C. Moore — Began my work, but it proved uncongenial from 
the beginning — What we had to do — In an attempt to kill a worrying fly I came to 
grief and spoiled the letter-book — Unfortunately I had already compromised my future 
business prospects by getting up, a short time before, a dog fight, which for a time at least 
disturbed the sleeping business repose of the neighborhood — These were two interesting 
episodes for Broad Street; nothing of the kind had ever happened before or since — The 
occurrence of the fire of August, 1843, terminated my business career — Account of the 
fire and supposed cause — An explosion, by which a man was blown to a great height— 
A remarkable result — Returned to Virginia and entered the University as a student — 
Illness of my grandmother and her final death prevented me from giving the necessary 
attention to my studies — Dismissed and treated unjustly by the Faculty — Explanation 
for the reader — The system of education at that time a wrong one— Guardian appointed 
for me by the court and to dispose of my father's property — The guardian only looked 
after his own interest and finally everything was lost by theft or mismanagement — Moved 
to New York, hoping to get some employment — My Uncle Robert, without consulting 
me, obtained an appointment for West Point, which I declined, as I knew I could not 
pass the examination — Met Thackeray — My opinion of him — Dickens impressed me 
favorably. 



N July fourth, 1842, the great Croton celebration 
took place, and the water for the first time was let 
into the Reservoir at Forty-second Street and 
Fifth Avenue, which was recently removed to give 
place for the Public Library. 

At that time nothing of the city was seen from 
the site but one or two church spires well to the 
southward. No one who witnessed the celebration could have had any 
anticipation of the revolution the event was to bring about in the 
welfare and appearance of the then overgrown village of New York. 

93 




94 Incidents of my Life 

There were, of course, no sewers, many of the streets were unpaved, 
and others only with large cobble-stones. On many of the corners, 
there was a pump for obtaining drinking water, with a mud hole in 
front for the accommodation of the hogs. There was an open cess- 
pool in the [backyard of every house, and close by a cistern 
for catching the rain-water from the roof for washing. The wealthy 
obtained water for making tea and sometimes for drinking, from the 
water butts driven through the streets, which were filled from a pump 
on the comer of the Bowery and Chatham Square. Into the streets 
much of the slops and garbage were thrown, and the hogs, without num- 
ber, roamed at large, as the only scavengers. Cows and often horses 
stood about blocking the way, and apparently with no purpose in life. 
Moreover, the streets were never swept but at the time of an approaching 
election, when it became necessary to count the votes beforehand, 
and it was not claimed that much was accomplished at that time beyond 
scattering the dust in clouds. 

My father left a book of original sketches made by him and, as is 
usually the case, the value of which was not fully appreciated until after 
its loss. From the ravages of time the book came to pieces, so that the 
drawings became scattered and lost. I have preserved two which are 
quite characteristic of his work, wherever the burlesque and caricature 
could be utilized, yet he always preserved the individuality or likeness 
of the individual, so that it could easily be identified, and equally true 
was he as to detail in his sketches of places. His sketch of "Corporation 
Improvements" is beyond question accurate as to the general appear- 
ance presented while cutting down the high ground on the Bayard Farm, 
to fill in the Collect Pond and back water nmning through Canal Street, 
from river to river. The sketch was made during the winter of 1818; 
at which time the Emmet family was living in White Street towards 
West Broadway. The view is taken from the west side of Broadway, 
and comer of White Street, looking north and down hill towards Canal 
Street. The Bayard House was left for a long time as shown, with only 
sufficient earth about the building as was necessary for its support. 
From my earliest recollection, the house shown on the northwest comer 
of Lispenard Street and Broadway projected on to the street as seen in 
the drawing, and it was only shortly before the Civil War, on building 
the Brandworth House, or Hotel, that it was removed. The number 
of hogs in the streets, as represented, are not an exaggeration, and I have, 
as a boy, often laughed at the astonishment of some old woman who, 
after pumping until she was tired out, and finding her bucket empty, 
until she learned to turn around to see what was going on and to have 
a leg free for kicking the next hog away. On the other side of the street 



zJnsmsvoiqinl noi:t£ioqio3 
8181 ni Jsmrna .1 .1 .iQ yd nw^iQ 



/ 



much or the sloj 
ber, roamed at ,, 
stood about blc. 

Moreo'/er, thes;^ 



Corporation Improvements 
Drawn by Dr. J. P. Emmet in i8ig 



West Broadway. The vtev 

and comer of White Sti'??et, . .-vn. u^. 

Street. The Bayard House was lef ; fo, 

-,.A;^.;.orjt earth about the V--' "• 
f ly earhest recollecti< 



.1 v\a ; Ten.o\ v 
not an exaggerci 



1 




..-,.1^'* ^ 


i 








< 


' 4^^.M. ^' ■" 




■ ■ 


< 
1 

It 
















ii 
S 






P 

h 


1 

1 ' 






1 



New York Streets in 1842 95 

is seen a woman blinded with the dust, which she is trying to displace 
with the knuckles of both hands. In addition to the dust, every indica- 
tion of life and an approaching election is given by the open trench in 
the street, the need for which no official could ever explain, beyond the 
convenience in having it to refill and the street to repave as soon as the 
election was over and no farther use could be made of the "street 
sweeper." 

The other sketch, "An Evening at Home," will be given later on, 
showing the assembled family in the parlor of the country residence on 
the old Middle Road. 

In comparison with the present, New York was then a bedlam from 
the street cries. Milk and often water were sold from cans suspended 
at each end of a yoke across the shoulders of the vendor, as is yet seen 
in Holland. The chimney sweep was loud-mouthed; the seller of char- 
coal, of vegetables, fresh fish, corded and split wood, flour, sand ped- 
lers, strawberry and other fruit pedlers, the tinker, scissors grinder, 
the old-hat collector, the old-clothes man with his cart, cow bells, and 
often a horn, the pedler of sewing materials, the "glass put in" man, 
the pie man, the huckster of job-lots, often the itinerant butcher or 
baker, and many others seeking to earn an honest living. All in quest 
of bargains, and each with a separate and more discordant cry, vied with 
each other in a strenuous effort to be heard. Thus the greater part of the 
city traflic was carried on in the street, and London in its best days never 
had so many different street cries as could be heard in New York, where 
so many foreigners repeated those used in their native country. 

At an early hour on July fourth, my cousins and myself set out 
across the country to see the ceremonies of the day at the Croton Reser- 
voir, but we stopped for a short time to try the fishing in a stream we 
crossed, running toward the East River and a little to the north of 
Forty-second Street. There was a large concourse of people, with many 
strangers, and as we had tickets we were able to see, from the top of the 
reservoir, the procession to great advantage. The most prominent 
featiu-e of it was the Fire Department, then a volunteer and unpaid 
organization, and with all their engines and hose carts brightened up 
and dressed with flowers. Almost every one had its own brass band. 
Several hours were devoted to speech-making and some of the most 
prominent men of the country were present, but I was unable to obtain 
information from any one about me as to who they were. All the boys 
left home barefooted, as was quite common during the warm weather 
and in the country. Unfortunately I had stubbed my toe, and as it 
was giving me some pain, I managed to climb down on the inside of the 
reservoir at the northeast comer, now Forty-second Street and Fifth 



96 Incidents of my Life 

Avenue, and for some time bathed my foot in the water running in by 
a small stream at that point. 

While seated there I was startled by the sudden outcoming of a small 
boat from the pipe, with a man more dead than alive, who had been 
venturesome enough to make the passage from Croton. The pipes were 
some five or six feet in diameter, and had they been laid on a level or 
inclined plane, there would have been no danger from the pipe be- 
coming fuU. He started with the first stream of water large enough 
to float his boat, but in consequence of the irregularity he found at 
some points the pipe full, so that the progress was so much retarded, 
from friction against the top, that he was nearly drowned. In less than 
half an hour after he had escaped every portion of the pipes must have 
been filled, and while this condition allowed the water to flow with 
greater raipdity, he had a narrow escape from being drowned. 

On ovix return we turned into the "Old Middle Road" to stop and 
see the country place of my grandfather, which was then unoccupied. 
His gate was at Fifty-fourth Street and the Old Road, and at this point 
it formed part of what is now Fifth Avenue. Years after, in opening 
Fifty-fourth Street, the house, which projected a few feet over the street, 
was set on fire from blasting and destroyed. The house and front 
yard occupied the half block afterwards covered by St. Luke's Hospital, 
and now by the Harvard Club house and other buildings facing on 
Fifth Avenue. It was a fine old Colonial country house and I regretted 
afterwards that I did not make a sketch of the exterior. I have, however, 
a drawing of the parlor, as I have stated, made by my father in 1818, and 
called "An Evening at Home," in which all the members of the family 
are shown, and while somewhat of a caricature, a likeness is preser\^ed 
in every individual. 

My father for a few days after his arrival from Charleston seemed 
to rally and we began to hope he would soon be up again. But this did 
not continue and as his lungs became greatly involved, or at least to 
cause him so much additional suffering, he decided to resign his position 
at the University and make a permanent settlement in Florida. He 
began making his preparations at once and I was charged with the 
commission to purchase a supply of matches. The sulphur match had 
but recently come into use and a paper box containing twenty-five was 
retailed for about seventy-five cents. I had piu-chased a supply for a 
year, of a little more than one match a day to start the kitchen fire, and 
was engaged in packing them in a tin box. My father was in his wrapper 
and had been sitting up for an hour or more, reading the paper, and I 
was alone with him. Suddenly as he rose from his chair, he said, "My 
boy, call your mother quickly." She was in the adjoining room, and 



'^V' 



..pr-S- 



smoH i£ §nin3v3 nA 



\st stream of water large ' 
. .., w.i, i.. - ., i^-.i.ce of the irregularity he fovuid ,.» 
the pipe full, so that" the progress was so much retarded, 
11 L J. i; r , .',a against the top, that he was nearly drovnied. In less than 
half an hour after he had escaped every portion of the pipes must have 
been filled. —-' -'-''^ ^'--- --^•^--- .,n,.„-...i .u. „...,- .^ *:i.,.. ...:^u 
greater rai 



An Evening at Home 
Drawn by Dr. J. P. Emmet in i8i8 



]>.ly father for a few days aiier liis arrival from Char! 
.to rally and we began to hope he would soon be up again. 
not his lungs became greatly involved, f 

(311 idirional =;iiffenn?, he derided to resi; 



f^a" 




rJ^- I 



■•wui'V' 'ikl! ill ni(^\S%^ii£'\ 

















Return to Virginia 97 

on entering he had lain down on the bed, and we heard him say, "I am 
never to see little Jane again" (my sister), and he was dead when we 
reached his side. 

My father died late in July and left me at the age of fourteen little 
more than his example and good name. From that time I had to think 
for myself, and practically to pay my own way. A relative advanced me 
the money so long as I needed it, after I began to study my profession, 
and I repaid every cent afterward with interest. In return for his 
kindness it is one of the most gratifying incidents of my life to have had 
the privilege and ability, years after, to lighten his burden, when a 
reverse of fortime came upon him in his old age. 

Shortly after my father's death it was decided best for my mother 
that we should return home, and be with my grandmother and sister. 
On our way home, we took one of the Chesapeake line of steamboats 
from Baltimore to Norfolk, as my mother wished to see her friends 
there. The next day, while she was with her friends, I went aboard 
of the Pennsylvania, 120-gun ship of the U. S. Navy. She had 
been built in Philadelphia and had only made the voyage to Nor- 
folk, for she was so large and had rolled to such an extent on her 
voyage, no one in authority had taken the responsibility to send her 
again to sea. She was at that time the largest vessel which had ever 
been constructed in this country, if not elsewhere. For many years she 
lay at anchor off Norfolk as a Receiving Ship, until she got aground, it 
was said, on the beef-bones thrown overboard, and finally she was sold 
and broken up as a failure. She was considered unseaworthy on 
account of her size and length, and from the probability that in a heavy 
sea she might be broken in two. We were at that time the best ship- 
builders in the world, and it is not likely that she was not properly 
constructed. As I recollect her, she had five or six gun-decks, and being 
rigged as a ship she seemed to me top-heavy, but this defect, if it existed, 
could, so far as I could understand, have been easily corrected by removing 
one or two tiers of giuis, and thus lowering the centre of gravity, or 
oscillation. She was a beautiful ship, and evidently the individuals 
responsible for her construction had lived several generations before 
their time. She was mistrusted, as imfortunately the public had not 
been educated, by a gradual increase in size, as to the safety of this 
vessel. To-day there are several iron ships, connected with the port 
of New York, into which the hull of the Pennsylvania could be placed 
under closed hatches. 

When we returned to Virginia, and my mother had not the means to 
send me to school, I spent several hours a day in the library of my uncle, 
Mr. George Tucker, the Professor of Political Economy and Belles- 



98 Incidents of my Life 



Lettres, reading on different subjects he directed and on which he 
examined me. During the remainder of the day I Hved in the open 
air and my existence was one of unalloyed happiness, with but one 
check. I keenly felt the death of my father and his loss seemed irre- 
parable, as I could see no future for myself, and my life became an aimless 
drift untn I would be old enough to enter the University as a student. 
Even with this course in anticipation my future seemed none the more 
assured, for my instinct prompted the fear that I lacked the proper 
foundation for following any course of study, without the assistance my 
father could have given me. I enjoyed the life, however, in being out 
in the open air with my gun and dog, walking day after day over the 
surrounding country and climbing mountains ; a training which doubtless 
laid the foundation for the long life which has been my portion. The 
recalling of my father's teaching was so constantly in my mind that I 
doubt if a single admonition I had ever received from him was forgotten. 
As I have stated elsewhere, it is my belief few fathers ever made a more 
lasting impression upon the moral development and after-life of a son, 
than he made on mine. On one occasion he taught me a very practical 
lesson. He overheard me finding fault in an arrogant maimer, with the 
negro whose business it was to clean my shoes. With a twinkle in his 
eye, which I well remember, and in a kindly manner as if conferring a 
privilege, he said: "My boy, from this time forth, so long as you are 
under my roof, you shall clean your own shoes, and this will give you the 
satisfaction of always being able to have your shoes exactly in the con- 
dition you wish." This taught me to be self-reliant, and to this day 
I am reluctant to call upon anyone to do for me what I can do for myself. 
After my father's death I was essentially the master of the house, 
at least all the negroes so regarded me, although I considered my mother 
to be the head. Yet I continued to clean my own shoes as I had done 
in his lifetime, and kept up the practice until I had a house of my own. 
In the spring of 1843 I left Virginia for New York, as my uncles had 
decided that I had better go into business, for I would be likely the 
sooner thus to earn something towards my own support. My uncle, 
Mr. McEvers, would have a place for me as soon as a clerk could be 
promoted by taking the place of another who was to be sent abroad on 
some special business, and vmtil the vacancy occiirred and after, I was 
to remain a member of his family, which was then at Mont Alto, his 
country place. 

About this time I remember seeing frequently at my uncle's house, 
Mr. Clement C. Moore, who I think was a connection, or at least he 
and his daughter were very intimate with the McEvers family. In after- 
life it was my good fortune to have met Mr. Moore frequently and I 



Beginning of Uncongenial Work 99 

always found him an agreeable talker. He then lived at his country- 
place, "Chelsea," on the banks of the Hudson River; the site is now 
covered by the Episcopal Theological Seminary, on the block between 
Twentieth and Twenty-first Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. At 
my last visit to that neighborhood, it seemed to me that there had been 
a great deal of filling in along the river front. Mr. Moore was the author 
of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," 

" 'T was the night before Christmas, when all through the house 
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" — 

a poem which will be remembered so long as the English language 
exists. 

After a few weeks I took my place and tried to go to work in my 
uncle's counting-house. But no words at my command could describe 
my suffering from the restraint and confinement, and how I soon loathed 
the work in which I could not take the slightest interest. The lad just 
ahead of me was the late Arthur Leary, or O'Leary as his father called 
himself, and who then kept the largest hat store in the country, under 
the Astor House, where he remained until he went out of business or 
died. My occupation was to copy letters into a large volume, notwith- 
standing a manifold impression was always first taken for use in the 
private office, but the copying by hand was enforced to give the boy, 
it was said, a knowledge of commercial phraseology. The steamer sailed 
for England every two weeks, and to give the correspondents abroad 
the latest news we were often kept up to a late hour, for the rule of the 
house was to "put off no work for to-morrow which can be done at the 
present time." 

The steamers made the voyage in from two to three weeks, and I 
sincerely wished sometimes they might be longer. I became tired enough 
of my perch on the top of a stool almost as high as I was, and on which 
it required a considerable effort to be seated, copying letters hour after 
hour, until I was heartsick of the monotony. During my life so great 
has been my dislike to copying letters, that where prudence has dictated 
the making of a retaining coDy, I have often taken the risk and omitted 
to do so. 

One afternoon, after a long, hot, and apparently interminable day, 
when I was tired, sleepy, and sore of body from the sticking of the seat 
of my trousers to the leather of the stool, or to my person, and I was 
sorely tried, there came in my way a prying and persistent fly. He had 
in turn tried to reach the drum of my ears and had also prospected as to 
the possibility of there being a shorter passage through my nostrils. 
When he left me for a moment and rested from his efforts on the edge 



Incidents of my Life 



of a large stoneware inkstand, with a murderoiis zeal I seized a heavy- 
mahogany ruler and smote my tormentor a vigorous blow, and the subse- 
quent proceedings interested the fly no more. But the resilient force 
from the blow caused the inkstand to institute a parabolic curve, during 
which, by the centrifugal action excited, the contents were held in check 
until the vessel landed bottom upwards in the middle of the letter-book! 
I was able to spring from my perch in time to save my clothing from being 
drenched by the ink. With my handkerchief and all the blotting-paper 
within reach, I tried to dispose of the ink, but my efforts were not as 
successful as I would have wished, for the appearance of the white 
duck-covered letter-book was not esthetic. My indignation as well as 
contempt was roused at the terrified expression exhibited by all the 
other boys, and the older clerks, who ignored me and pretended that 
they had seen nothing of the occturence. As I could see no use of pre- 
serving such, a nasty-looking appearance as the letter-book presented, I 
took out my knife and cut out about twenty pages of those most stained. 
I then attempted to trim off the stained edges, but being damp, the 
effort was not successful, and I doubt if the youngest rat, and one devoid 
of all pride, would have been willing to have claimed the job. I worked 
on amid the densest silence, only broken by the ticking of the big clock, 
which irritated me the more, as the usual scratching of every quill pen 
had been stopped, and I knew I had the eyes of every one fixed upon me. 
If I had heard a single suppressed sigh of horror, which every one about 
me had doubtless emitted at the supposed sacrilege I was committing, 
there would have been a series of fights on hand. I had been made aware 
for some time that I was losing caste and had already seriously meditated 
as to the necessity for thrashing in turn all the youngsters, who had begun 
to^show an indifferent manner towards me. I knew they were but taking 
their cue from their elders, who had judged me a failure, and felt I 
would soon be maldng room for one who would be more likely to avail 
himself of the opportimity presented. Unfortunately mishaps never 
come alone. A few days before I had knocked down one of the senior 
clerks for calling me a negro driver, after he had accused me of having 
surreptitiously eaten his lunch, and had persisted in the charge after 
I had told him I knew nothing of it. And shortly before I had disturbed 
the wonted silence and had demonstrated to the neighborhood my need 
for diversion and relaxation from my duties, which were weighing heavily 
upon me. With the aid of a boy next door with whom I had been quite 
chummy at lunch time, we loosened a board at the bottom of the division 
fence, for his passage with the watch dog. I immediately seized our dog 
by the collar for fear there might be a breach of etiquette before the 
stranger had been able to smell about him to his heart's content. At 



Remarkable Result of a Fire Explosion loi 

the call of time both dogs were brought up into position by their re- 
spective aiders and abettors, both snarling and snapping at vacancy in a 
most edifying manner. At the word go each dog was hurled by his 
principal into the loving embrace of his adversary. While I was deeply 
absorbed in the passing event and in the midst of a din which was sug- 
gestive of activity to the most sedentary sojourner of the neighborhood, 
and when at a most critical period and the issue uncertain, I was sud- 
denly seized by the collar and shaken by the grown clerk, who had charge 
of the boys, and ordered into the house. He kicked the strange boy 
through the space in the fence, and the only satisfaction I had was seeing 
from the rapidity with which the neighboring dog followed I was certain 
he was whipped and our dog would have soon conquered. 

These two episodes had rendered my position a strained one in the 
public opinion of our community. 

After I had done the best I could in cleaning up the letter-book, I put it 
in the safe, washed my hands, got my hat, and started for my uncle's 
home, although it was an hour or more before my regular time for leaving. 
This act was but an additional cause for astonishment and for prolonging 
the silence which had oppressed me. I knew that I was in for it, so far 
at least that I felt my commercial experience was near the end. 

When I met my uncle at dinner he was grave, but kind as usual in 
his manner towards me. This was about the middle of August, 1843, and 
I am now unable to remember if the incident of upsetting the inkstand 
was on Saturday with consequently a day intervening before my ex- 
pected return to the office. There was a day or two of interval and I may 
have asked the holiday, or my uncle may have suggested that I should 
remain away for a day or two. When I next went to town with him by 
the Harlem Railroad, we heard at the depot that there was a very 
large fire in the lower part of the city, and as we approached the city 
we could see the dense smoke from the car windows. When we reached 
the neighborhood of Wall Street we found that my uncle's counting- 
house had been one of the first destroyed, and that the whole section 
of the town between Broadway, Wall Street, and the East River had 
been burned over, as in the great fire of 1835. Previous to this fire, it 
had been the custom of all the commission merchants who did not live 
over their offices, to use the upper part of the house as storage lofts, in 
which each cargo consigned was stored until sold. My imcle's ware- 
house was on the east side of Broad Street, just at the angle or curve in 
the street, about the distance of a block from Wall Street. Directly 
opposite, the fire had originated in a house which was said to have been 
stored with only cotton and saltpetre. As there was a terrific explosion 
during the burning of this house, which broke all the windows in the 



Incidents of my Life 



front of the City Hall and throughout the town to the south, at the 
same time blowing some of the burning timber across the river into 
Brooklyn, the question was raised as to the probabiHty of an explosion 
from the mixing of cotton and saltpetre together. That question has 
not been settled to this day, but rests on the sworn testimony of the 
owners that these two articles were alone stored there. 

An incident, bordering on the incredible, occurred in connection with 
this fire. On the roof of the house to the north and adjoining, in which 
the explosion occurred, stood a yotmg lawyer at the time of the ex- 
plosion, whom I knew of, but was not acquainted with him personally. 
He was the foreman of one of the most noted of the volunteer fire-engine 
organizations in the city, and at the time was holding the brass butt at 
the end of the serving-pipe with which he was playing water on the 
fire. He fell at least the height of a tall four-story building to the 
street, but he stated that he was blown in addition to a great distance 
into the air. He was picked up from the opposite pavement alive and 
only shaken up, as he expressed it. He wished to continue his work 
but was urged to go home and rest. He was unable to get any con- 
veyance, and walked from Wall Street to his house in Macdougal Street 
near Washington Square. As he had some shortness of breath he went 
to bed suffering no pain, but died suddenly in the night. A post-mortem 
examination showed that he had broken a blood-vessel not larger than 
a small needle, which slowly filled the pleural cavity with blood, until 
death was at length produced from suffocation. That a covmter current^ 
of air, rushing in to fill the partial vacuum produced by the explosion, 
had acted as a parachute and checked his descent, is the only feasible 
explanation for his reaching the ground without being dashed to pieces. 
When this man was picked up he still had in his hand the brass butt or 
nozzle-piece, which had been separated from the hose as if with a sharp 
knife, and yet the force had not displaced it from his grasp! An occvu-- 
rence which is as inexplicable to the comprehension of the average man, 
as the claimed possibility of being able, under certain circumstances, 
of firing a candle through a thick deal board without changing its shape ! 

This fire ended my experience in commercial affairs, for my uncle 
found it an easy matter to convince me that a longer service on my 
part would but prove a waste of time. In relation to the letter-book he 
explained to me it was a fortunate circumstance it had been burned, 
as the fire would probably cause lawsuits to prove his losses, and if the 
book was brought into court the mutilation could never be explained 
away to the satisfaction of any jury, for the natural inference would be 
it had been done for some dishonest purpose. 

' Called a back-draft by firemen. 



Incidents of !^n- Ij'fr 



troxv 

sa; 



'\riVi am' 'hrou. 



this fire. C)n the roof of the house to the north and adjoining, m w! 
the explosion occurred, stood a young lawyer at the time of the c. 
plosion, whom I knew of, but was not acquainted 'with him personal'. 
He was the foreman of one of the most noted of the volunteer fire-eng,.,.' 
organizations in the city, and at the time was holding the brass butt at 
the end of the serving-pipe with which he was playing water on the 
fire. He fell at least the height of a tall four-story building to the 
street, but he stated that he was blown in addition to a i'n-At l- ; '. ^ 
into the air. He was picked up from the opposite pav<' 
only shaken up, as he expressed it. He wish, i u-. cnv 
but was urged to go home and rest. He v> - 
veyance, and walked from "\lJ5M-fe.SJofeh ♦HJ'Tucker 
near Washington Square. As '[feii^a J. Tucker] 
to bed suffering no pain, but r^ainted by Ford, 1832 
examination showed that he 
a small needle, which slowly 
death was at length produced frot:! 
of air, rushing in to fill the parti, 
had acted as a parachute and ch<: 
explanation for his reaching the g- 
When this man was picked up he 
nozzle-piece, which had ' *" *"' 
knife, and yet the forct 
rence which is as ir -^ 
as the claimed p' 
of firing a candle ttnuu^u a 
This fire ended my exp< 



jss butt or 
.>j: >, ■ .:w-. VI-- ji. vv 1th a sharp 
1 it from his grasp! An occur- 

[irehension of the average man . 

N under certain circumstanr* 



a 

b. 
a" 
it had 



Dismissed by the Faculty 103 

In June my mother and sister came North accompanied by my 
grandmother in quest of medical aid, as her health had begun to fail 
rapidly. She was sent by her physician to Ballston, N. Y., which at 
that time was more frequented as a health resort than Saratoga, only 
a few miles distant. She was greatly benefited, and was after a few 
weeks restored apparently to her normal condition. There remained 
for me now nothing to do but to enter the University, and we returned 
home towards the close of August, and as the session began in September 
I was just in time, and I matriculated with a firm determination to make 
every effort on my part. Soon after our return, my grandmother again 
became very feeble and unfortunately within a week her condition was 
critical. I naturally was with her as much as I could be to relieve my 
mother, for in those days the burden of nursing the sick rested upon the 
members of the family. With the selfishness so often shown by old 
people, my grandmother wished me to be about her all the time, and 
was unwilling to have me relieved by my mother, during several hours 
in the day when I was to attend the lectures. At length she would 
allow scarcely any one but myself to render her the slightest service. I 
was thus confined night and day for six weeks before her death. From 
this my health finally suffered, as I was unable to get any sleep but in a 
chair at her bedside, and if I left the room for a moment she would have 
me sent for as soon as she detected my absence. 

On returning to my studies which had been entirely neglected in the 
University, I found it impossible to keep up with any class but the one 
in Natural Philosophy, where everything was demonstrated by good 
drawings. But finally in despair I gradually ceased to attend any 
lecture and sought the only consolation within my reach, — ^with my gun 
and dog in the sunlight and fresh air. My mother naturally supposed 
I was daily occupied with my duties in the University, and was unpre- 
pared several months after to receive from the chairman of the faculty 
a letter stating that by a full vote of the professors it had been decided, 
as an example, to have me dismissed and that my name would be removed 
from the roll of the students. The chairman, in addition, urged, in 
consequence of his great friendship for my father, and as the only means 
of saving me, that she should seek to have appointed by the court a 
guardian who would take interest enough in my future to be strict with 
me. I explained the situation to my mother as fully as I could under- 
stand it, and, to her credit, she expressed the fullest confidence in my 
honesty of purpose. This was the only ray of light and hope for the 
future, coming to me as an offset to the misjudgment and injustice 
which had been done me by the faculty. I went to several of the pro- 
fessors to explain my situation, but I got no sympathy, in fact they were 



104 Incidents of my Life 

incredulous and thought me untruthful, when I stated that my absence 
had not been due to dissipation. It seemed as if the only cause known 
to them for idleness and neglect of duty on the part of a student was 
intemperance ; and what mortified me beyond expression was the general 
opinion that from intemperance my case was a hopeless one, and that 
nothing was to be expected from my future. 

I claim no credit for having escaped the frailties of youth, as it was 
easier for me to keep a straight course of rectitude than to go astray, 
and I can truthfully state I have never committed an excess in my life, 
except in the use of tobacco, and that I gave up early in life, as soon as 
I realized I had become a slave to its use, and thus have I remained 
through life my own master. 

I come of a temperate race, and I cannot recall having ever seen my 
father take a full glass of wine, yet we had both wine and spirits in the 
house in case of sickness, and always in use when we had an entertain- 
ment. As a consequence, I have never had the slightest taste for stimu- 
lants, and have only taken them irregularly in advanced life, when I 
have needed them, and then only to a moderate degree. In early life 
they were distasteful, and from choice I was inclined to total abstinence. 
This blessing, I believe, I owe to my progenitors, for there is no fact 
accepted more as a truism in medicine than that the taste for stimulants, 
as a rule, is inherited. Yet this fact does not lessen the responsibility or 
free-will of the less fortunate individual, as to an obHgation to live a 
temperate life. The obligation is the same and rests upon all, to resist 
temptation and the influence of inheritance. 

With this understanding I hold the man who has no desire to indtdge 
in the use of stimulants deserves no credit for being temperate. More- 
over, I never gambled or made a bet in my life, as both precedures 
seemed to me senseless, if not in some degree dishonest, in taking money 
from another without giving an equivalent. These views I received 
from my father early in life, with the additional counsel never to go 
security for any one, in justice to the rights of my family. His advice 
was where I felt under obligation to render this assistance to any one 
and could afford to spare the money, to give the amount or lend it to the 
person in need, and take the chance of being repaid. If I could not 
afford, or readily pay the amount at any time when called upon, I would 
be committing a dishonest act to the pubHc, and an injustice to my family, 
in going security. If viewed simply as a matter of expediency, experience 
had demonstrated the chances are much greater that one would always 
be called upon to meet the obligation when least prepared, and would 
have then to make the greater sacrifice. Therefore, it was wise to meet it 
in the beginning as if it had to be assumed. 



Wrong System of Education 105 

I have never had occasion to regret rigidly adhering to this advice, 
but have suffered on each occasion when I have failed to follow his 
teaching. 

I make the statement, the truth of which will be doubted by some, 
or in charity be attributed to the weakened memory of old age. From 
the earliest time in my recollection, my first impulse was to obey rules 
and regulations; I seemed early in life to recognize this necessity — "to 
keep things straight," as I would have expressed it at that time. And 
yet there never was a boy who took more enjoyment out of all the devil- 
try and frolic going, without there being slightest trace of the prude in 
my nature, if the term was ever applicable to the male sex. The law 
has been as a signpost throughout my life, and to follow any other 
course seemed as ill-judged as to take the opposite direction from the one 
indicated by a signpost on the highway. This inclination was, no doubt, 
an inheritance, strengthened by the early training I received, and it 
became the incentive in after-life to always act from principle, so far as I 
was able to determine what my duty was. Doubtless I have in the 
weakness of human judgment erred many times, yet in all truth I can 
claim that through life it has been easier for me to obey the law from 
inclination, than to break it, consequently I have sxiffered but little from 
temptation. 

My own case, in connection with the University of Virginia, has 
convinced me that the future of many a young man under like circum- 
stances has been ruined through lack of judgment on the part of those 
who should have properly directed his college course, and who failed to 
study the needs of each individual student. It may be claimed that 
this is impossible, more the pity if this be so, as the whole system of 
education is then at fault. The miller always gauges the distance 
between the stones of his mill for grinding each special grain by itself, 
as experience has taught him it would be impossible to get a satisfactory 
result by throwing all kinds of grain together in a common hopper. No 
man ever had so narrow an escape as I had from having every prospect 
in life shattered, and, as the result will show, from need of only a little 
ingenuousness based on the judgment of some one who could exercise it 
without preconceived opinions. 

My father's debts did not exceed fifty dollars, therefore in accord 
with the law of Virginia, under the circumstances, the judge of some 
court in session at Charlottesville appointed guardians that the estate 
might be sold. This was done, and through neglect and mismanagement 
every dollar was lost. I took my mother on to New York so that in 
making a new home she would be near the family, and I made an 
attempt to find something to do for a support. My uncle. Judge Robert 



io6 Incidents of my Life 



Emmet, made application and was successful in getting for me an ap- 
pointment for West Point, and did so without letting me know, to save 
me from disappointment, in case of failure. On thinking the matter 
over, I decided not to accept it, as I knew that I was lacking in the 
early education, and in consequence it would be impossible for me to 
pass the examination for admission. I felt very grateful to my uncle's 
friend who, from influence and his great desire to oblige, had succeeded 
in obtaining the appointment with so little delay. It seemed ungracious 
not at least to make the attempt, but it would have been a waste of 
time without some preparation, and I had not the means to spare which 
would have been necessary. 

I have often wished I could recall the name of the gentleman who 
got the appointment for me, and I may some time be able to find it, from 
a sobriquet which was always at that time associated with his name, 
but which I have also forgotten. 

He was a judge of a state court and whether he was unduly confined 
to the wool-sack, or he left home without having provided a new suit of 
clothes for the circuit, his old trousers came to grief in time. On his 
return he rendered a bill as an extra charge against the State for fifty 
cents disbursed by him for a new seat or patch on his old trousers. While 
no statement is made as to the evident circumstances attending the solu- 
tion of contiguity, the court must have adjourned for appearances, at 
least, and there was no alternative but for him to have gone to bed to 
keep warm, thereby he was unduly deprived of his liberty, while the 
damage was being repaired ! 

I had the opportunity of meeting William M. Thackeray socially, 
and of hearing him deliver a course of lectures on the Four Georges at 
the old Broadway Tabernacle, and these lectures were afterwards pub- 
lished in book form. I cannot recall a single instance of hearing Thack- 
eray say a pleasant or kindly thing of any one. He was doubtless a man 
of ability in many respects, but it was always shown in a snarling form. 
It is true, an account of the four Georges of England was not an inviting 
theme, and of three of them at least there could be nothing but an 
exhibition of stupidity under different forms, and of "the Illustrious 
George," nothing but vice; but he seemed to glory in his subject. I 
know not whether from prejudice against one of the most conceited men 
I ever knew, or from lack of appreciation on my part of the good points 
claimed for him by others, I have never given his books shelf -room in my 
library. With his pen he was a remarkably clever caricaturist; in fact 
I cannot recall ever having met one more ready, but if possible the domi- 
nant trait in his character was made as prominent in this line as in his 
writings. I have always associated my recollection of Thackeray with 



My Recollection of Dickens 107 

Charles Dickens, whom I did not know socially, but had seen him often as 
a schoolboy some years before, and as a listener, when he was on a social 
visit or being entertained by some member of the family, I enjoyed 
greatly what I could hear. He seemed to be a kindly and genial man, 
especially for an Englishman of his type, but he always appeared some- 
what under restraint, for I believe his private life was an unhappy one. 
To some extent his reserved manner may have been due to having been 
much censured for his American Notes, written after his last visit. He 
did not impress me as a man of great ability or depth, nor as being one of 
much general information. But to appreciate fully the wonderful genius 
of the author of the Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nicklehy 
one must be alone, and settled down in an easy chair, free to enjoy all he 
is able to "take in." 



Chapter IX 



Consulted Dr. Dunglison as to the possibility of studying medicine — He advised doing so — 
After hearing the first lecture on medicine I felt satisfied I had found my vocation — 
Dined with the doctor's family every Sunday — Who I met there — ^Wm. B. Wood, an old 
English actor, Mr. Garesch^, son-in-law of Col. Duponceau of the Revolution — Both 
good talkers, with reminiscences of many distinguished men and events — Rev. Henry W. 
Ducachet, a physician and afterwards became a clergyman — His relation with my father — 
Rev. Dr. G. W.'Bethune, the scholar — The elder Agassiz just after he came to this country 
— His experience previous to 1845 — Dr. Elisha Kent Kane — His uncle, Robert M. Paterson, 
a professor in the University of Virginia. — Knew Kane as a boy — His experience when 
in charge of the Grinnell expedition to the North Pole — Nicholas P. Trist — His anecdotes 
in connection with the Mexican War — Colonel May a remarkable horseman — Some 
of his feats — An occasional glimpse of Philadelphia social life — Dr. David H. Tucker — 
The Dallas family — Atty.-Genl. B. H. Brewster — Recollections in relation to the younger 
men who were teachers of medicine in Philadelphia — Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, a fellow 
student — At his graduation dinner given him by his father — Returned the diimer fifty 
years after — The country place of my uncle, Wm. C. Emmet at Staatsburg, Dutchess 
Co., on the Hudson River — Dr. Hosack's place near Hyde Park, now held by Mr. Fred- 
erick Vanderbilt — Mrs. Maturin Livingston's place adjoining — Her sons and daughters — 
My xmcle sold his place in 1855 to the Dinsmore family — Recall two notable events in 
connection with my uncle's hospitality — The marriage of Mr. Robert Emmet, Jr., to 
Miss Catherine James, an entertainment lasting a week; and a visit from Archbishop 
Hughes to lay the comer stone of a Catholic Church on the land given by Mr. Emmet — 
The ^Bishop was a remarkable man — His course in New York during the Know-Nothing 
troubles of 1849 — The members of the Know-Nothing party — What they amounted to. 




SOON found that I was not likely to find any em- 
ployment to my taste or ability to fill the place if 
foimd. I was too old to take a position as office 
boy or to fit myself for any trade, and I could only 
get some transient employment which would not 
advance me permanently. In a moment of inspira- 
tion I wrote to Dr. Dimglison of the Jefferson 
Medical College, Philadelphia, prompted by the faculty of being 
able to decide quickly. The doctor had been appointed a professor 
in the University of Virginia by Air. Jefferson, at the same time 
with my father, and they had been warm friends. Dr. Dunglison 
assisted at my birth, but had left the University almost before 

108 




ti^ruC^-^i. 



Eugiitli actor 
good talkers, 



ici.ne — ix. advij'-fi dome ^ 



Prof. Robley Dunglison, M.D. 
Painted by Ford, 1832 



OON loun 

]o\Tnent .c 
I was 

'■■', fit m^ 




'uj^^Jy^^^^^ 



i 



Advised to Study Medicine 109 

my recollection. I wrote, telling him that I had been suddenly 
stranded, stating the circumstances which had severed my con- 
nection with the University, and asking, as a friend of my father, his 
opinion as to the advisability of trying to study medicine. I received 
a prompt and generous response. The doctor fully understood my 
difficulty and his advice was to make no effort to study but to attend the 
medical lectures regularly, and try to remember what I could. The 
first medical lecture I ever heard was delivered in October, 1846, by Dr. 
J. K. Mitchell, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, 
in the Jefferson, and from that hour I felt my life's work was laid out for 
me. The interest with which I heard that lecture encouraged me to 
hope that there was something in reserve for me in the future from 
inheritance. I had come of a family of physicians who for four consecu- 
tive generations at least before me had been distinguished beyond the 
average, and were in every respect successful men in their profession. 
Another circumstance surprised me — that I seemed to understand every- 
thing stated, and to be to some degree familiar with the subject, and yet 
I had never heard anything relating to it before. 

I was interested in my work from the beginning and retained a clear 
recollection of what I heard from day to day, and I found I could do so 
to a greater degree than many of my associates were able to after the 
training of a college course. My course of study was an uneventful 
one in every respect with the exception of an attack of small-pox and one 
of pneumonia, for which I was immediately bled, got a dose of calomel, 
and convalesced promptly. As if in parentheses I will state, however 
much this mode of treatment may be justly discredited at the present 
day in consequence of former abuse, this was the common practice when 
I began to study medicine, and a death from pneumonia thus treated 
was then as rare as a recovery is to-day by the expectant system. There 
is need for both methods, and in a reaction at some future time to the 
credit of the profession this will be brought about. 

I attended strictly to my work and in time I was able to study to 
the best advantage. I kept my living expenses and extravagances within 
three hundred dollars a year, and at the end of four years I graduated. 

Dr. Dunglison and his estimable wife kindly gave me a standing in- 
vitation to dine with them every Sunday, a privilege of which I gladly 
availed myself. Nothing in connection with the recollections of my 
student days in Philadelphia ever gives me more pleasure than I derive 
from recaUing the persons I met and what I heard at his table. I met 
always one or more strangers who had presented letters of introduction, 
with two standby s like myself who were never absent. These were an old 
English actor, Mr. Wilham B. Wood, and Mr. Garesche, an old French- 



no Incidents of my Life 



man, who spoke English very well. Mr. Wood and his wife some fifty 
years before were noted on the stage in England and in this country. He 
had known the Keans, Mrs. Siddons, Cooke, the elder Booth in this coun- 
try, and every actor of note in his day, and his reminiscences were most 
interesting, instructive, and without limit. He afterward wrote his 
reminiscences of the stage, which is a standard work. 

Mr. Garesche had married the daughter of Col. P. S. Duponceau, 
one of the French officers who served through the Revolution and was 
appointed Assistant Secretary of State, which office he held for many 
years. Mr. Garesche lived with his father-in-law in early life, and there 
met many of the actors in the Revolution, as well as distinguished 
strangers from Europe, and he seemed to have been a close observer. Dr. 
Dunglison was well read and had the faculty of being able to direct the 
conversation so as to draw from his guests such information as they 
happened to be the most familiar with, and as a listener I profited greatly. 
These gentlemen were fully eighty years of age, but .were yet vigorous 
both in body and mind. 

I met frequently the Rev. Dr. Henry William Ducachet, the pastor 
of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of which Dr. Dtmglison was a mem- 
ber. He also was a man of education and a good talker. He had been 
a physician in practice before he became a clergyman, had studied medi- 
cine, and graduated in the same class and at the same time with my 
father. My father's thesis for graduation was on The Chemistry of 
Animated Matter, and it was the one selected from those of the other 
graduates by the faculty, to be publicly discussed according to the cus- 
tom, and Dr. Ducachet was selected to controvert my father's views. 

The Rev. Dr. G. W. Bethune of New York I frequently met at Dr. 
Dunglison 's house; a man of great learning, full of anecdote, and a good 
talker. He was an author, and the editor and annotator of that charm- 
ing edition of Walton's Complete Angler, with which his name is identified. 

During the winter of 1845-46 I met at the doctor's table the elder 
Agassiz, who had but recently arrived in this country. His conversation 
was chiefly confined to scientific subjects, much of which was beyond my 
scope, but interesting in many respects. He seemed a good-natured 
beer-drinking German and a good companion, but there was nothing 
about him suggestive of the student. He, however, placed me under a 
great obligation to which I will again refer hereafter. He stated after his 
college days he began to increase in weight, and was full of life with as 
healthy an appetite as a ploughman. The desire to eat and sleep was 
so constant that at length he was in despair of ever being able to study or 
accomplish any literary work ; he finally had a bench made on which he 
could just balance himself while awake. As soon as he began to study 



Nicholas P. Trist m 

he woiild fall asleep, but on [losing his consciousness, he also lost his 
balance and would fall on the floor. After this procedure had been re- 
peated sufficiently, he would lose his drowsiness and be able to study. 

I dined frequently with Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, several years my 
senior, but an old playmate when his uncle, Dr. Robert M. Paterson of 
Philadelphia, was a professor at the University of Virginia. I met him 
after he entered the navy as surgeon and when he was relieved after the 
Mexican War to command the expedition fitted out by Henry Grinnell, 
a merchant of New York, in search of the survivors of the Franklin 
Expedition, and if possible to reach the North Pole. I also saw him after 
his return, and after hearing his enthusiastic account of seeing at a 
distance an open sea about the North Pole, it is difficult to tmderstand 
how he could have deceived himself, as with such a climate the water 
must be frozen to a great depth at all seasons. 

I met one gentleman, an old friend of Dr. Dunglison, Mr. Nicholas 
P. Trist, who was his guest for several weeks at the close of the Mexican 
War. I had much in common with Mr. Trist, who was a Virginian by 
birth and had married a granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, and Dr. 
Dunglison had made his acquaintance while living at the University. 
From Mr. Trist I heard a more graphic account of several battles in 
Mexico, than I was ever able to obtain from any written account. He 
had been the chief clerk in the State Department at Washington, and 
was for a while on the staff of General Winfield Scott. He, however, 
was sent to make the treaty of peace which was signed in January, 1848, 
with the Mexican authorities, and General Lopez de Santa Ana, I suppose, 
who commanded the Mexican forces. Mr. Trist must have also been 
at one time with the command of General Zachary Taylor, afterward 
President of the United States. Colonel Jefferson Davis, afterward 
Secretary of War and during the Civil War, President of the Confederate 
States, commanded a foot regiment from Mississippi in General Taylor's 
army, and he was also a son-in-law of Taylor. 

In relation to the battle of Buena Vista or Monterey Mr. Trist men- 
tioned having witnessed a remarkable military manoeuvre, which I 
believe had never been made before or attempted since. The regiment 
under the command of Davis was charged by a Mexican corps of cavalry, 
a noted body, and the best in the Mexican service ; and I think under the 
command of a General Levegas. It is held that nothing will demoralize 
a foot regiment more than a cavalry charge, and that only forming in a 
hollow square, as the English did at Waterloo, can hold infantry in place. 
To the surprise of all, Davis's infantry opened into a V shape form and 
then closed in on the cavalry so as to check their action, and both riders 
and horses were nearly all slaughtered at close quarters by the bowie 



Incidents of my Life 



knives of the Mississippi men. And yet Davis was never considered 
a military genius, but a man of undaunted courage. Whenever he 
interfered during the Civil War in military movements, it proved a 
mistake and he illustrated a common weakness of human nature in 
priding oneself on the possession of some talent, in which the public 
would judge us deficient. In the same battle, I think, Mr. Trist saw a 
charge made by Colonel May, one of the best horsemen in the country; 
a man of great strength and much above the average height. A Mexican 
corps of artillery was doing so much execution at one point that it was 
essential it should be dispersed and Colonel May was commanded to 
charge. On the approach of the cavalry the artillerymen deserted their 
guns, leaving the commanding officer engaged in the effort to fire a can- 
non at point blank range with a fuse which must have nearly ex- 
tinguished. The delay enabled Cojonel May in his charge to clear the 
cannon in a leap of his horse, so as to seize the officer by his coat collar, 
before he could fire, and swing him up a prisoner onto the saddle cloth 
behind him. 

Colonel May probably had not his equal as a rider. I remember 
being in Baltimore a guest at Bamum's Hotel, and hearing, from several 
persons who had seen the feat, that Colonel May had just left the house 
after paying a visit on horseback. He had taken his horse up the steep 
stone steps on one side of the portico at the main entrance and ridden 
it up to the office desk, where he presented his card and waited on 
horseback until he was informed his friend was not in, and then returned 
to the street as he had entered. 

It seemed as if I could fill a volume with what I can recall of individ- 
uals seen and of what I heard at Dr. DungHson's table during the four 
years I was a weekly guest. Unfortunately, but little would be of interest 
to the reader of the present day, — of people and events so near to the 
present time that much would be the better when " time is old and hath 
forgotten itself . " 

I was more fortunate than many of my fellow students in getting a 
frequent peep into social life. As a class the medical students held a 
very low position and in no first class boarding house would they be 
received. I suppose my manner was that of another civilization and 
the cut of my clothing was certainly of another type, as I succeeded 
several times in getting a room off. from the "students' district," but as 
soon as suspicion was directed, by knowing from the hours I was away 
attending lectures, I would find on my retiun in the evening all my 
belongings piled up in the entry- way as near the .front door as possible, 
and there was nothing to be done but call for a coach and return to the 
old quarters. 



Father's Old Friends 113 

The medical students were at that time as distinct a class by them- 
selves, as in Paris, and they consequently became as lawless. When a 
"watchman" was going off duty at night, the last thing to be done was 
to hunt up "his boys, " who may have gotten into trouble. He had his 
night key, and as he found one of his flock he would throw the disabled 
one across his shoulder, as he would have done a sack of grain, and put- 
ting him inside of his door, he would be left to get to bed when able. If 
he had been too demonstative and was locked up, the guardian of the 
peace got the needed "straw bail," paid what was necessary, where any 
one's feelings had been hurt, and saw him safely inside of his door. 
At a regular time each month the watchman would call for his due, and 
to collect whatever he had paid out in addition, and this indebtedness 
was always settled as promptly and without question, as a gambling 
debt would be. 

Old friends of my father would hunt me up from time to time and 
have me to dinner. Dr. David H. Tucker, the eldest son of St. George 
Tucker, the Professor of Law at the University of Virginia was connected 
with the Franklin Medical School and was practising medicine in Phila- 
delphia. His wife was the eldest daughter of Mr. George M. DaUas, 
a noted lawyer, and for part of the time I was in Philadelphia he was 
Vice-President of the United States during the Administration of James 
K. Polk, The Dallas family lived in Walnut Street on the comer of Ninth, 
where they entertained a great deal and had not the popular prejudice 
against medical students when they found a presentable one, and never let 
it be known that the social outcast of a friend was under a cloud. These 
young ladies were very kind and would have made it difficult for me to 
attend to my work, but it became understood that when I wanted "to 
go out, " they would always furnish the means. To their kindness I was 
several times indebted for a seat at one of their father's state dinners, 
to fill a gap at the last moment. It was an honor at my age, as I met there 
several men of this country or from abroad whom I would have never met 
otherwise. I had little to say for myself, but took such an earnest 
interest in the subject of conversation of those about me, that I was 
sometimes rewarded by having some special explanation addressed to me. 
I recall one gentleman whom I must have met for the first time at Mr. 
Dallas's house under these circumstances, Mr. Benj. H. Brewster, At- 
torney-General of the United States for President Arthur's Administra- 
tion, during which time he did some good professional work. At the time 
I first met him he had earned a reputation in settling some noted Indian 
claims, which were then being discussed, and he, seeing from my manner 
that I had not been able to follow him, stopped his narrative to explain 
the point to me. Mr. Brewster was comparatively a young man at the 



114 Incidents of my Life 

time, at an age when he would as a rule have not given me the least at- 
tention. In saving his sister's life from fire when a young man, he was 
frightfully disfigured over the whole face. Yet, so brilUant and active was 
his mind that while speaking the deformity disappeared. His father was 
a descendant of Wm. Brewster of Plymouth, Mass., and his mother was a 
Hampton, of South Carolina. He was consequently a gentleman in 
every instinct, and I have seen him return the humble salutation of some 
crippled up old negro in the streets of Philadelphia, with a degree of 
courtly suavity I have never seen equalled. 

I at one time boarded near the Twelfth and Market Street railroad 
depot, from which the train left for Washington. As it did so in the 
evening just after my tea, I frequently would cross the street to see 
who were going South. I then became acquainted by sight with a 
mammoth trunk called the "Cathedral" which must have been the first 
ever used on the plan of the "Reservation" trunks of the present day. 
It was smaller at top and was rolled about. This trimk or press, I was 
told, conveyed all the muslin, lawn, and Hght summer dresses used by the 
ladies of the Dallas family direct from the laundress, and they remained 
hanging up until used. The passage back and forth seemed to be 
recognized as a necessity, and it was handled with as much care as a mail 
bag as to its safety. The opportunity for smashing up such a contrivance 
given to one of the East Florida coast railroad operators of the present 
day, would from the tonic effect render him almost malaria proof the 
year around. Every one seemed to know the "Cathedral" and every 
consideration was shown it. I recall hearing several times the conductor 
turning to the depot master and saying "Shall we be off?" — and the 
answer: "Wait a few moments the Cathedral has not arrived." 

Among the medical men and their assistants with whom I was brought 
in contact at that time, there were a great deal of common sense and appre- 
ciation of the practical value of what should be taught. Yet there was no 
lack in estimation as to the value of detail and accurate knowledge where 
it was applicable. I attended each year the summer course in Philadel- 
phia, which was a repetition of the winter one given in the college. The 
lectures were delivered by younger men who were well trained, and all 
of those who lived or continued to work, became prominent later in life. 
On one occasion Dr. Wallace, who already had a large surgical practice 
was to lecture on hernia one hot July afternoon, when it was hot only 
as it can be sometimes in Philadelphia. The doctor weighed three hun- 
dred pounds or more, and after divesting himself of all the clothing he 
could spare, came in with the trunk of a subject to make his demonstra- 
tion. But the heat was too much for him and, mopping himself between 
each word, he began: "When you come to operate for hernia you will 



Dr. S. Weir Mitchell 115 

find little you have been taught to expect, and I cannot now enter into a 
fuller explanation, but it is in a nut-shell, cut until you come to the gut, 
and you will be a damn fool if you cut it ; good-day. " When the weather 
got^ cooler, the doctor did the subject full justice in his usual affable 
manner, but to this hot day I was indebted for an important practical 
lesson being forcibly impressed upon me. Many times in after-life when 
I_had lost my way in the abdominal cavity, where everything had become 
matted together by frequent attacks af peritonitis, and where often in 
the tissues there seemed but the thickness and consistency of damp tissue 
paper as the only barrier to some accident which might cause the death 
of the patient, I have felt a wave of demoralization pass through me 
down to my knees. I would suddenly think of the lecture on hernia 
with the full details which I have not given, and with a smile not in 
keeping with the situation, I have had my faculties sharpened so that 
with care and time I have sooA worked out into a clearing, with no 
further difficulty before me. 

I do not cite this incident of the lecture on hernia as a reflection upon 
Dr. Wallace, but in appreciation of the terse and practical lesson he 
wished to convey. Notwithstanding the accidental inelegant mode of 
expression, it impressed every one who heard his few words with the 
necessity of self-reliance under every circumstance, and, above all, that 
the difficulties of the operation were exaggerated by the usual mode of 
teaching. Dr. Wallace had already gained a reputation as a careful 
and successful surgeon before his death. 

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the honored physician and man of letters, and a 
son of Professor J. K. Mitchell, whose lecture made straight the way for 
me, was a fellow student. We began our studies together, we were 
members of the same quiz class, we graduated on the same day, and I, 
as one of his friends, was a guest at a large dinner given him by his father, 
on the day of his graduation. The dinner was a joyous occasion, with 
the world bright and full of hope for all of us, and I shall never forget it. 

I had the pleasure of returning the compliment of this dinner to Dr. 
Mitchell just fifty years after, and had a most appreciative selection of 
New York medical men to meet him. 

It has been a source of regret to me that our course in life has been 
passed on different lines; but we have met from time to time and re- 
newed the kindly feelings in connection with our relations in the past, 
and which shall continue to the last. 

Most remarkable it is that we are now about the last living of our 
class, and though both are well past eighty years of age — I being the 
doctor's senior by a year or two — should still fully maintain our mental 
activity and literary work. Judging from his work there has been no 



ii6 Incidents of my Life 

change, as it is evident he yet possesses a degree of activity and excel- 
lency to a greater extent than has been the portion of many men in middle 
life. 

That a man should be able successfully to establish his well-merited 
and world-wide professional pre-eminence and at the same time be the 
author of Hugh Wynne, is indeed phenomenal. 

My uncle, Mr. Wm. ColviUe Emmet, had a country place at Staatsburg, 
Dutchess Co., a few miles above Hyde Park, and called the " Locusts." 
Shortly after his marriage and visit to us in Virginia, to which I have 
already referred, he was induced to make his home in this neighborhood, 
as Dr. David Hosack, after retiring from practice, then lived just above 
Hyde Park. This place had already become one of the show places 
on the river, as it was laid out with great taste by Dr. Bard, of New York, 
and Dr. Hosack, with his knowledge of botany and love for hortictilture, 
had greatly improved it. The place passed from the Hosack family to 
the Langdons of Portsmouth, N.H., and is now the property of Frederick 
Vanderbilt. Dr. Hosack was my aunt's step-father, he having married 
the widow of Henry Coster, an old New York merchant. A remarkable 
collection of different families were at one time inmates of Dr. Hosack's 
household. He had married three times, and each time a widow with 
one or more children at the time she became his wife. I can recall the 
names of Hosack, Wilkes, Harvey, Coster, and Pendleton, and there were 
probably others I have forgotten. 

The place adjoining my uncle's estate was also a YQxy noted one, and 
had been built shortly after the Revolution by General Morgan Lewis, 
a son of Francis Lewis one of the New York signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. The widow of Morgan Lewis married Maturin 
Livingston, I think a brother of the chancellor, who did not sign the 
Declaration, as he was not a member of the following Congress. Mrs. 
Livingston was at the head of the family during my recollection, with a 
large number of sons and daughters, all of whom married among the 
most prominent families in the country, and at some time during each 
summer they returned with their children to pay a visit to the old 
homestead. Mortimer Livingston, I think the eldest son, married a 
Miss De Paw and lived on Staten Island near the present Fort Wadsworth. 
His wife was a great granddaughter of the French Admiral, Count de 
Grasse, who commanded the French fleet which aided in cornering Lord 
Comwallis at Yorktown, thus ending the Revolution and securing the 
Independence of the United States. The admiral's son, while governor 
of St. Domingo and on a temporary visit to Paris, was gtdllotined during 
the French Revolution. Shortly after, when the black poptdation of 
St. Domingo rose and gained their independence, the three daughters of 



Social Life on the Hudson 117 

Governor de Grasse escaped to Charleston, S. C., where one married 
Mr. De Paw, a merchant who afterward settled in New York. The 
other daughters died in Charleston and were buried in one of the churches, 
where an appropriate monument was placed over their remains within 
recent years, through the efforts of the late ex-Mayor Courtenej^ of that 
city. 

Two of Mrs. Livingston's daughters married brothers, of an old South 
Carolina family. Major Rollins Lowndes of the U. S. A, and Mr. William 
Lowndes, who afterward lived in Maryland. Another daughter married 
Mr. Gould Hoyt, and Gould Hoyt, Jr., married a daughter of General 
Winfield Scott, who was the Commanding General in the Mexican War, 
and then lived in Philadelphia. I never made Mrs. Hoyt's personal 
acquaintance, but I frequently saw her in Philadelphia, during my 
medical student days, whenever I could get the entree to some feature of 
the season, as Mrs. John Jacob Astor's annual ball was for so many 
years in New York. Another daughter married a Delafield, who was 
the father of Mr. Lewis Delafield, and there were others, but their 
names have passed out of my memory. I state these details, as I had 
the pleasure of always spending some portion of every summer with my 
uncle and aunt during the time I was studying medicine, and the young 
people gathered during the summer at the Livingston place, made the 
neighborhood a very gay one. There was no place where I ever en- 
joyed myself more than while I was on one of these visits to the "Locusts," 
and kept myself busy in laying out walks, making rustic seats, and 
trimming up the trees. 

My uncle disposed of this place in the spring of 1855, to the Dinsmore 
family who still hold it. My young wife and I had the satisfaction of 
being able to make a visit before closing the house, when I pointed out to 
her all the improvements I had accomplished, and which I was never to 
see again, except in the memory of the past. We had the happiness of 
spending the summer with my uncle and family at Long Branch, and in 
the autumn he went abroad for ten years or more to educate his boys. At 
the time of his departure he was at his best, with an excellent voice and 
an endless store at his command of comic and Irish songs, and few could 
tell a better story, so that he was always the central point of attraction 
at 'every social gathering. I always recollect him as the younger man, 
for on his return the silence of approaching old age and bad health had 
already began to make an imprint. 

There were two events which occurred at my uncle's country place 
during the four years I spent in Philadelphia, which made an indelible 
impression on my mind. Judge Robert Emmet's second son, Robert, 
Jr., married Catherine, the eldest daughter of Augustus James, a 



ii8 Incidents of my Life 

neighbor of my uncle. It was a remarkable event in the history of the 
family, and with the exception of the gathering of the clan at the dinner 
I gave on the celebration of my golden wedding, it was the first, and I 
had the last, general assemblage of the family which can ever take place. 
In addition to my uncle's household, every member of the family, with 
the exception of some of the younger children, assembled under his roof 
for a frolic, which was to last nearly a week. And Mr. James's house was 
equally packed with his family and friends from Albany. In addition, 
all the country places for miles about had their guests, and all were busy 
during the week in entertaining. The house was a large one, but with 
comparatively few rooms, yet there was space enough, after caring for 
the elders, to put up any number of cots needed. All the boys and 
younger male members of the family were packed on board the Arab, 
my uncle's schooner yacht, which was anchored off the place and all that 
was needed was a good blanket, for the weather was warm and every one 
slept on deck. The extra servants were accommodated in two large 
rooms over the laundry, an outbuilding on the bank of the river. I 
doubt if at any one time during this week every member of the family 
was asleep. There was not an individual, old or young in the party, who 
was not ready and up to anything proposed, if it took all night or day, 
so that during the time there was a continued course of fun and good 
nature, Hterally all day and night. 

The day after the wedding we made an early start for the James 
place, where we were to have a second breakfast; a dance after and for 
all day, to wind up with a dinner and a dance to last well toward morning. 
It was during the summer when the wind could not be depended upon, 
so several large fiat-bottomed boats had been provided, which were pro- 
pelled by a number of sweeps, with two men at each oar. Each boat 
was covered with a large square carpet, which hung over the sides, and 
all were seated on a number of benches which had been obtained from 
some hall, and the time was enlivened by the efforts of an old Irish 
fiddler, who was to help out in the day's work. 

With the exception of Miss Lydia Emmet, a daughter of Judge 
Robert Emmet, I am probably the only and the oldest living member of 
the family, who took part in these festivities, who is now alive. 

The following year my uncle had an interesting visit from Bishop 
Hughes, of New York, and his secretary, who, at that time, I think was 
Father McCluskey, who afterward became the Cardinal Archbishop. 
A section of the Hudson River railroad was then being built in the neigh- 
borhood, and with the large number of Catholics employed in the country 
places about it became necessary to have a Catholic Church, as there was 
not one nearer than Poughkeepsie, ten miles distant. The Bishop came 



Bishop Hughes and the ''Know-Nothings" 119 

up Friday afternoon, and he and his assistant were busy hearing confes- 
sions on Saturday, and on Sunday the comer-stone was laid with all the 
ceremony usual on such occasions. For a country place there was an 
unusual gathering of all the prominent people of the neighborhood, and 
many of them had never seen a Catholic bishop before, or any of the 
faith higher in the social scale than the day laborer or those employed 
as servants, and his sermon was a revelation to them. Bishop Hughes 
was a remarkable man, and both he and his secretary impressed greatly 
every one with whom they came in contact on this visit. Although of 
humble birth, the church training and the grace of his position, made 
him one of the most learned, tactful, and polished gentlemen of his day. 
He was of indomitable courage, and seemed to gain strength in overcom- 
ing the countless difficulties with which his administration was beset 
from the prejudice, ignorance, and lack of Christian charity in the com- 
munity. He was being constantly forced into religious controversy 
by the misrepresentations of those who pitted their comparatively puny 
intellectual development and want of proper training against the judg- 
ment of the great mental giants of the world, who had given their life's 
work, through so many centuries of the past, to consideration of sub- 
jects which these midgets regarded with so much flippancy. 

My uncle gave the land for the church and doubtless a donation in 
addition, and he was very active in raising the money for the building, 
so that it was erected without delay. 

At this time Bishop Hughes was a marked man and had gained the 
profound respect and good wishes of nearly every law-abiding and fair- 
minded person in the city. It was at the time of the "Know-Nothing" 
persecution, for no other term is applicable, and the adherents had 
terrorized the land with their lawlessness. The beginning was the burn- 
ing of the Ursuline Convent near Boston, and the spread of the CathoHc 
faith, from the desire to investigate its teaching which this act excited, 
brought probably more persons into the CathoHc Church than the Church 
itself could have gained by any effort. Catholic churches were burned 
in Philadelphia and other parts of the country, and Bishop Hughes was 
notified that every Catholic church in New York would be destroyed. 
When he called on the cowardly Democratic Mayor of the city, whoever 
he may have been, and could get no assurance of protection for the church 
property, he decided at once to take care of it himself. He armed every 
man and well-grown boy, who was able to serve, and caused it to be 
generally known that, as if in defence of their lives, there would be no 
hesitation in promptly shooting down any one who was found under 
circumstances indicating an evil intent on them or any of the property 
under their charge. He garrisoned the Cathedral in Mulberry Street, 



120 Incidents of my Life 



had loopholes made in the high wall which then surrounded it, and built 
up places on each comer so that no one could gain a shelter under the 
walls. He took command himself, as this church had been specially- 
threatened. His stand and that of the people of his flock intimidated 
this cowardly rabble, and no individual or church property in his diocese 
was injured. 

We are told no nile is without exception, and yet I have to meet the 
first person holding such extreme and uncharitable views, who was not 
cowardly by nature, and this constitutional defect prompts the holding 
of such views. In other words, these people are degenerates or moral 
deformities, where their impulses often border closely upon insanity. 
Individuals with well-balanced minds are always firm in their own 
convictions, yet are free from prejudice, and are by nature of kindly 
instincts towards their neighbor with whom they may differ. It is 
only the person, tolerant or charitable by nature, who can appreciate 
either the beauty of the teaching, or the obligation inculcated in our 
Saviour's Sermon on the Mount. 

The uncharitable have not the faith and know not the love of God. 
God has authorized no man to pass judgment on his neighbor, and yet 
the uncharitable, in the spirit of the Pharisees, seem to delude themselves 
with the belief they possess God's prerogative. We are clearly instructed 
to "Judge not that ye be not judged." The acts of the uncharitable 
need no judgment in this world as they speak for themselves, while the 
force of a good example, to aid others, is the work of true Christianity. 



Chapter X 



Portrait of Fulton painted by Miss Elizabeth Emmet and under his instruction — The only- 
authentic one — Married Mr. Wm. H. LeRoy — Portrait borrowed by Dr. Francis of 
New York and never returned — Delaplaine, publisher of the Repository of Prominent 
Men, committed a fraud — As my grandfather was unwilling to incur the expense of 
having a special portrait painted for this work, which would have been all profit to Dela- 
plaine he offered one of himself painted by Miss Emmet under Fulton's direction — 
Delaplaine consequently omitted the biography of my grandfather — Having obtained 
the steel plate of Miss Emmet's portrait, used by Colden in his memoirs of Fulton, he 
maliciously issued it as the work of West, notwithstanding he was familiar with its 
history — A criticism on West, showing he could not have painted Fulton's portrait — 
After the death of Dr. Francis, Miss Emmet's portrait was sold as having been painted 
by West — The Hudson- Fulton Association used and exhibited during its celebration a 
portrait owned by R. Fulton Cutting, claimed to have been painted by West — Proof 
that it was painted by an unknown artist from Delaplaine's engraving — Fulton painted 
on Miss Emmet's portrait as seen through the open window, his new gtmboat Fulton 
No. I, which was being built, and which no one but he and his workmen had ever seen — 
This Delaplaine had removed from the plate and substituted in 1817 the blowing up 

' of a vessel in 1806 by Fulton — Proof given to show that the same plate was used to print 
Fulton's portrait for Colden's memoirs, and the issue by Delaplaine for the Repository — 
The miniature painted by Fulton and copied by himself from Miss Emmet's portrait, 
are the only authentic portraits of him (see Appendix, Note XIV) — Began my connection 
with Irish affairs in this country during the Repeal movement by Danl. O'Connell — 
Attended a noted fancy dress ball at the Astor Place Opera House in 1848 — Have not 
shaved off my mustache since — Macready the actor was a friend of the family — The 
Astor Place Opera House riot — Excited by the friends of Edwin Forrest, the actor, 
and in sympathy with the "Know- Nothing" movement — Macready escapes to Boston 
and returns to England^Mpt Saml. Lover — His wit and songs — Burns's Scotch songs — 
Moore's Melodies not strictly Irish — Was present at the first meeting of the American 
Medical Association in Philadelphia — I became a graduate in Medicine — Received the 
appointment of Surgeon to an expedition fitted out to build for Meiggs the first railroad 
in Chili — Dr. Ruschenberger, Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy — I declined the position — 
Reasons for doing so. 



SPENT the Christmas holidays of 1847 with my uncle, 
Wm. H. LeRoy, who married, as I have stated, 
my aunt, Elizabeth Emmet. I refer to this visit in 
connection with a portrait of Robert Fulton which 
I have reason to believe was used during the recent 
Hudson-Fulton Celebration and was attributed to 
Benjamin West as the artist. My uncle from 1 846 to 
1849 resided in East Fourth Street, just beyond the Bowery, at that time 
a fashionable residential quarter for quiet people. From childhood I was 
noted for being a close observer, and as soon as I entered the house I 

121 




122 Incidents of my Life 

missed a portrait of Fulton which had hung there at my last visit, and 
which I had seen in the family all my life. On asking my aunt about 
this portrait, she told me that she had painted it from life when a young 
woman, and that it had been borrowed a short time before by Dr. John 
W. Francis of No. i Bond Street, who was the family physician. 

Dr. Francis borrowed this portrait, with which he had been familiar 
since it was painted, and he used it at some Fulton dinner or entertain- 
ment, at which he was to preside. From her, on this occasion, I obtained 
the history of this portrait, which I in after-life incorporated in The 
Emmet Family, published in 1898, and a presentation copy of the book 
can be found in the Astor and the Lenox libraries. 

I wrote: "Robert Fulton and Mr. Emmet (Thomas Addis, my grand- 
father) resided in Paris at the same time, where they became acquainted 
and a warm friendship sprang up between them. " In a footnote I stated : 
"The diary of Mr. Emmet, written while living in Paris as the secret 
agent of the Revolutionary party in Ireland, and published in 
this work and Ireland Under English Rule, second edition, 1909, 
shows that Fulton at one time expected to join the expedition to Ireland 
for the purpose of using his recently-invented torpedo against the 
English — Mr. Fulton returned to New York about the time Mr. Emmet 
arrived (November 11, 1804) with his family, and it is not improbable 
that they crossed in the same ship.' From this time until his death, 
Fulton was on the most intimate relations with the Emmet family. He 
had studied painting under West, and detecting evidences of talent in 
Mr. Emmet's second daughter, Elizabeth, he devoted much of his spare 
time for several years to perfecting Miss Emmet's skill in portrait paint- 
ing. He sat, as a critic and model, for Miss Emmet to paint his likeness. 
From this portrait, well remembered by the writer, an engraving was 
made by W. S. Leney in 1817, for Cadwallader D. Colden's Life of Robert 
Fulton. Mr. Golden was an intimate friend of both Fulton and the 
Emmet family, and being familiar with the history of this portrait, 
selected it for his work. But a short time before Fulton's death he 
assisted her in painting portraits of her father and mother. Both of 
these are in the possession of the writer." 

In a footnote to this account as given in The Emmet Family, I state 
the following : Delaplaine in his Repository attributes this portrait, 
which he copied for some reason, to West. Delaplaine's book was the 
first of a number that have appeared since, in which like works the duties 
of the editor were not laborious, as any citizen could have the privilege 

' Later investigation shows that Fulton did not cross with Mr. Emmet, or he returned, as 
he was abroad in 1806 and came to this country early in 1807 where he remained until his 
death. 




J9fnrn3 .A 2£moriT 

.raW .2iM] riJadfisiia isJriguBb isrf yd bsink^ 
lo liquq £ aliriw ,oi8i ni [^o^sJ 



•,- last visit, and 



family, pubiish«i in isyts, and a presenta ok- 

found in the Astor and the Lenox libraries. 
I wrote: "Robert Fulton and Mr. Emmet (Thomas Addis, my grand- 
father) resided in Paris at the same time, wher..: the\- beca-ne . ciuainted 
and a warm friendship sprang up between th- • 
"The diary of Mr. E':;Tn-itL v.-in u '■.hile ■ 
agent of the R 
this work and i - _ . 

shows that Fulton at Mrs. Thomas A. Emmet 
"" '■i'^' ' [Jane Patten Emmet] 

Painted by her daughter Elizabeth [Mrs. Wm. H. 

LeRoy] in 1810, while a pupil of 

Robert Fulton 



From this portrait, well remembered by the writer, an engraving was 
made by W. S. Leney in 181 7, for Cadwallader D. Colden's Life of Robert 
Fulton. Mr. Colden was an intimate friend of both Fulton and the 
Emmet family, and being familiar with the history of. this portrait, 
.-elected it for his work. But a short time before Fulton's death he 
' ' ■ ■ ' " 'ler father and mother " " ' 



The Emmet Fanviw 
■y attributes this p' 



he was abroaa ^ lie rtemauaed until his 

death. 




JarnmH .A afimoriT 

.H .mW .aiM] rlJadfisiia i9Jri§i/Bfa airi x^ h^in'iR^ 

^o fiquq £ sliriw ,0181 nr [^(oHaJ 




Thomas A. Emmet 

Painted by his daughter Elizabeth [Mrs. Wm. H. 

LeRoy] in 1810, while a pupil of 

Robert Fulton 



Portrait of Fulton 123 

of being distinguished by writing his own eulogy, provided he was wilUng 
to go to the expense of having his likeness taken under the charge of the 
editor or publisher, who made this feature profitable. Probably the 
following extract from a letter written by Mr. Emmet to his daughter 
will explain why he does not appear in this work, and why Miss Emmet 
was not given the credit for painting the portrait. The letter is dated 
February 20, 1817: 

I perceive by Delaplaine's letter that he still holds on. I ought to have 
written to him in answer to his letter, but I did not well know what to say, 
and indeed forgot it in thinking about other things. As to sitting for my pic- 
ture and paying for it, my vanity is not equal to that, and I can not permit 
myself to be exhibited as one of the National Worthies on these terms. But 
if you thought you could make anything out of the picture you have, why 
then vanity might let it go, — so that the kind of answer I shall give him will 
depend on you. 

Delaplaine was given permission to copy Miss Emmet's portrait of 
Fulton for his work and had it in his possession knowing its history, yet 
he did not give the artist credit, as her father had declined to incur the 
expense of having a special portrait painted for the Repository. Nor 
did he use the portrait, but actually had her name erased from the plate 
used by Golden, which he purchased and had altered, attributing the 
painting to West, and did so from spite. In consequence of Delaplaine's 
publishing and altering the engraving of Fulton, Miss Emmet's portrait 
of him was sold in New York within a few years as an original painting 
by Benjamin West. 

I may add to this that Miss Emmet's portrait of her father, painted 
under the supervision of Fulton, was offered to Delaplaine and declined. 
Judging from the only letter I ever saw of Delaplaine's I doubt if he had 
anything more to do with the issue of the Repository beyond making 
what money he could out of it, leaving the literary work to others, and I 
doubt if he ever had an opportunity to see a portrait painted by West. 
If he had been familiar with West's portraits he could never honestly 
have attributed the portrait in his possession to that artist, while he 
was not ignorant of its history. 

George Hammond, the Enghsh Minister during Jefferson's adminis- 
tration, who was obliged to return home on account of interfering with 
American politics, married a daughter of Andrew Allen, a distinguished 
man in Philadelphia, but who was expatriated during the Revolution as 
a Tory. Allen was a patron of Benjamin West, who painted a large 
number of family portraits and pictures for him. Lord Hammond, a 
son of the Minister in Jefferson's administration, gave me the opportunity, 



124 Incidents of my Life 

about thirty years ago, of spending a large portion of a day in examining 
his collection of West's paintings in his London house, probably the 
largest ever made. At that time I was engaged in hunting up the original 
portraits of the signers of the Declaration of Independence In the 
Hammond collection was a painting called The Cricketers, in which 
is given the only portrait of Arthur Middleton of South Carolina, as he 
appeared while a student at Oxford, England. I mention this opportunity 
of examining a number of portraits painted by West as the basis for my 
assertion that West could never have painted the portrait of Fulton 
which was in the possession of the sons of Dr. Francis. West ground his 
own paints carefully, and his coloring is now good, as time has toned it 
down, and he was said to have been unusually fortunate in catching a 
likeness, but I have never seen a painting by West in which the figures 
were not only stiff but wooden in appearance, while this figure of Fulton 
by Miss Emmet is exceedingly easy in the position represented. In my 
opinion had West lived at a later period, with competition, he would have 
found it difficult to have established his reputation. 

During one of Fulton's visits to my grandfather's house he became 
engaged in an animated discussion with Colden, or some other gentleman 
present. My aunt, in a moment of inspiration, made a pencil sketch 
of Fulton as he is presented in the portrait. Before it was finished, Ful- 
ton, seeing her at work, jumped up and seized it. He was so much im- 
pressed w^th the talent shown, that he at once arranged that my aunt 
should paint his portrait under his direction, and in the position in 
which she had sketched him. It was painted without delay, and when 
nearly finished he took the brush from her and painted in the gunboat 
Fulton No. I, as seen through the open window. This circumstance 
establishes the fact that the Emmet portrait of Fulton was painted 
shortly before his death and after the vessel had been sheathed. 

For a short time after my grandfather arrived in this country, as his 
circumstances were very moderate, he for a time occupied a house at No. 
43 Water Street, and at one time he lived on the corner of Pine and 
Nassau streets. During the remainder of his life his city house was on the 
West Side, where the houses were comparatively few in number, along the 
Hudson River, and he died in a house facing St. John's Square. The 
city was burned along the Hudson River bank at the beginning of the 
Revolution, and it was not built up as it was on the East Side, until well 
into the last century, as Trinity Church owned most of the property 
and probably had not the means to improve it. I, therefore, believe 
the view shown in the Fulton portrait was suggested by some portion 
of the Hudson River as it appeared from the family residence at the time 
the picture was painted. In some of the family papers there is a letter 



^ 



H mW .ziU] Jsmma rfJadBsiia -^aiM A(d baJnk*! 

.8 .W ^(d bavKigna ,1^181 mods [yo^aJ 

zirf aj nabloD \d faaau bo£ ^anaJ 



lol baeu bns snifilgBba yd bsiaJiB ,9j£lq soibz sriT 

jifiiJioq £ moi] y^od js bb ^lolhoqsSl aid 

}89W nimjsinsa >(d 







124 Inciden ifc 



y portrait ot Arthur Middleton oi b* 
\ a student at Oxford, England. Imenii' 
of examining a number of portraits painted by West as the basis for my 
assertion that West could never have painted the portrait of Fulton 
which was in the possession of the sons of Dr. Francis. West ground his 
own paints carefully, and his coloring is now good, as time has toned it 
down, and he was said to have been unusually fortunate in catching a 
likeness, but I have never seen a painting by West in whirb ili:> f,rr' 
were not only stiff but wooden in appearance, while i 
by Miss Emmet is exceed^n. K- pn-.x- in ^.hf position rc^ . .. 
opinion had West lived ai Robert Fulton^^ competition, 

'Painted by Miss Elizabeth Emmet' [MrsrWm. H. 

LeRoy] about 1814, engraved by W. S. 

Leney and used by Golden in his 

memoir of Fulton 



Robert Fulton 

The same plate, altered by Delaplaine and used for 

his Repository as a copy from a portrait 

riiHO)i .\o. 1, :>■> ':<rt:; m, by , Benjamin We^t - ..■■.-.. in., i.jn.uiiJM.iijt<. c 
establishes the fact that the Enimet portrait of Fulton was painted 
shortly before his death and after the vessel had been sheathed. 

For a short time after my grandfather arrived in this country, as his 
circumstances were very moderate, he for a time occupied a house at No. 
43 Water Street, and at one time he lived on the comer of Pine and 
Nassau streets. During the ro ' 
West Side, where the houses we: 

and he died in a n i J"j'.n ^ 

1 along the Hudson ' at the be 

;is not built up as 1.I: was on the E 
. as Trinity Church owned mc 
i means to improve it. i 
Iton portrait was suggest 
01 i. " ■' ■■^'~- 

the , . i^-'-'i- 



West or Miss Emmet? 125 

showing that the portraits of my grandfather and his wife were painted 
in 1 8 10, when my aunt was between fifteen and sixteen years of age, and 
the portrait of Fulton must therefore have been made but a short time 
before his death. He began to build the torpedo boat after the beginning 
of the war in 1812, and the exposure which caused his death was in 
directing the preparation for launching this vessel, which took place the 
day before his death. 

West went to England before the Revolution and outlived Fulton, 
but he never returned to this country, nor did Fulton visit England after 
his arrival in this country. Fulton is represented in a dress fashionable 
in France during the early part of the century and while England was at 
war with France, and West could never have seen him in that dress unless 
it can be shown that Fulton visited England after 1806, which he did not 
do. My grandfather kept house in Paris, or at least had apartments in 
the Grande Judge Regnier's Hotel, Place Vendome, and when he came 
to this country he brought all his household effects with him. The chair 
on which Fulton is seated is like the set used by my grandfather and was 
of French manufacture. The fashion in England at that time and for 
many years before and after was to have the chairs made strong and 
heavy, of mahogany or walnut, with leather seats. The chairs my grand- 
father had were light, made of white wood and painted with black varnish, 
while the legs and other parts were fluted, with the concave surfaces 
gilded. The seats were coarse and made of bullrushes, and were more 
comfortable than the present cane-bottomed chair. 

Mr. LeRoy, after living a number of years on a large estate in St. 
Lawrence County, N. Y., returned to the city. This was shortly after 
the death of my grandfather and when his house in the country was being 
broken up, as the sons and daughters had all married or scattered. My 
aunt then came into ownership of the greater part of her father's furniture 
with which she set up housekeeping. I thus came to be familiar 
with the appearance of the set of chairs, on one of which Fulton is repre- 
sented as seated, and several of them in good condition were in her 
possession when she and her husband moved to New Rochelle in 1850 
or '51. 

I several times asked her why she did not get the Fulton portrait 
back from Dr. Francis, and she always said she would attend to it the 
next time she went to town. But it was forgotten and to-day there is no 
member of her family living who could claim the portrait. 

Dr. Francis died in 1861. In 1857 was published his noted work, 
Old New York, or Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years, and at the time 
he wrote this work, in which he refers to the portrait of Fulton painted 
by Miss Emmet, it was hanging up in his own house. At the time this 



126 Incidents of my Life 



portrait was painted, Francis, as a young man, was a constant visitor at 
my grandfather's house, and was intimate with every individual con- 
nected with this portrait, as he shows in his Reminiscences. 

After Dr. Francis's death, his two sons settled in Newport, R. I., and 
years after the death of my aunt and her children, I received a letter from 
Dr. Mott Francis offering to sell this portrait by my aunt, which he 
stated had been given to his father by her. I wrote him an account of 
its history and offered a good price for it. After some delay my offer 
was declined on the ground that it had been found to have been painted 
by West, some one having showed him in the meantime Delaplaine's 
engraving. 

A gentleman decided to purchase from Francis and wrote to me as 
to its history, but unfortunately I have mislaid his letter. I answered 
it in full, but he made the purchase and preferred to believe it was a 
painting by West. 

I had an interview with a member of the committee in connection 
with the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, regarding a loaned portrait of 
Fulton and one alleged to have been painted by West,' and which I 
supposed was the one sold by Francis, but apparently he and the other 
members of the committee, preferred to have it pass for a painting by 
West. The matter never was investigated, so far at least as to having 
any commtmication with me, nor was any mention made in their 
publications, as to a doubt existing in regard to its authenticity. Mr. 
Thomas P. Tuite took an active part in carrying out the Irish portion 
of the celebration, and wrote and published at my request an account of 
Fulton from the Irish standpoint. He took a great interest in having 
it determined, if possible, who was the painter of the portrait on exhibition 
and he was associated in his efforts with Mr. J. I. C. Clark, who prepared 
an admirable report for the last volume of Transactions of the American 
Irish Historical Society, which has not yet been published. But neither 
of them was able to accomplish anything, nor could they, as every one 
seemed too busy to give any information, obtain permission to get near 
enough to the painting to make an examination as to certain details 
which would have determined the matter. 

Measurements and a magnifying glass, however, show that the en- 
graved portrait used by Colden, and the one by Delaplaine, were printed 

' I learned by accident that this portrait belonged to Robt. Fulton Cutting, Esq., of 
New York, and found it had no history as to when or how it came into the possession of the 
family. It shows the explosion, which settles the point that it was painted from the engraved 
Delaplaine print, and since 1817. Or it is the original portrait painted by Miss Emmet. 
Francis may have sold to a dealer who had the gunboat painted out and the explosion 
painted in to correspond with the engraving, and then sold to the Cutting fainily as a West. 
See Appendix, Note XIV. 



Hudson-Fulton Loan Exhibition 127 

from the same plate as has been stated. Delaplaine declined to use 
Miss Emmet's painting, after he obtained possession of the engraved 
plate, done in 1816, that it should appear afterward with the date 181 5 as 
if he had copied a painting by West. He employed Leney, the same 
engraver and printer of the portrait used by Golden in his work, and he 
purchased the same plate, no doubt, at a bargain, as it was no longer of 
use to any one but himself. Colden's work on Fulton was published early 
in 1 81 7 and Delaplaine's book was issued later in the same year. He 
employed Leney to work up the old plate done in 1816 as if something 
new, to pass for a copy of a portrait by West. A background was 
worked in and the whole included within a square border, the lower side 
of which was drawn across to obliterate Miss Emmet's name and that of 
the engraver. Then, after the impressions had been printed from the 
metal plate, the names of West and of the engraver Leney were printed 
below with type from the same font used to print the superscription. 
This fact alone shows that the plate had been tampered with, as it is 
inconceivable that any engraver would finish out his work so close along 
the lower edge of his plate as not to have room for his name, if not for 
that of the painter as well. Every circumstance goes to show that 
Delaplaine's work was malicious. 

But the most important point is that Fulton painted on Miss Emmet's 
portrait a representation of his new and formidable war vessel which he 
was building, and which no one but himself and the workmen had ever seen. 
In the engraving to represent a painting by West the war vessel then 
building had to be worked out, and a vessel being blown up by a sub- 
marine torpedo in 1806 off the coast of England was substituted. The 
question then is, what is shown through the open window in the portrait 
claimed to have been painted by West? 

In the Hudson-Fulton Loan Exhibition there was shown a minia- 
ture of Robert Fulton, belonging to Mrs. Lucy Walton Drexel, of Pen- 
ryn, Bucks County, Pa., near Philadelphia, which is vouched for and was 
undoubtedly painted by himself. Since its return, I have examined it 
carefully, and find that the head is identical with the engraving by Leney 
of Miss Emmet's portrait, both in position and expression, I have never 
seen a copy made by hand so nearly a facsimile of the original painting 
as is this miniature. If we had not such positive proof in relation to all 
the circumstances to prove that Miss Emmet did paint Fulton's portrait 
from life, as vouched for by Golden, Francis, by her own statement, and 
by other evidence both positive and circumstantial, it might be claimed 
that Miss Emmet copied the miniature. I have shown that Fulton 
considered Miss Emmet's likeness and expression of his features so good 
that the probabilities are he took the portrait by Miss Emmet as his 



128 Incidents of my Life 

guide in painting his own miniature. As it is over sixty years since I last 
saw the portrait by Miss Emmet, I cannot recall the details in the paint- 
ing, but with this miniature, the matter is reduced to the point that if 
Leney engraved Miss Emmet's portrait of Fulton and it was a correct 
likeness in all details, then the engraving shows that Fulton used Miss 
Emmet's work to paint his own miniature. This must be the case or 
there would be some difference in the expression, position of the head, 
or in the arrangement of dress or hair. Had there ever been a portrait 
in existence by West in New York or elsewhere, the fact would have been 
known to Fulton and his friends. Golden would certainly have made 
some reference to it, or have used the portrait painted by so distinguished 
an artist, in preference to the work of one unknown to fame, and he would 
have done so without any reference to the talent shown by Miss Emmet. 

Mrs. LeRoy continued to paint until she had passed her eighty- 
third year and until a short time before her death. She would never 
allow any of her paintings to be exhibited, and always underrated her 
own work, but the numerous portraits and paintings made by her for 
the different members of the family are fully appreciated and highly 
prized. 

While I was a student of medicine I began to be closely identified 
with Irish politics, and with the movement in this country of those of 
Irish blood in sympathy with the Nationalists of Ireland, That interest 
has continued to the present time, becoming the more intensified with 
each succeeding year. 

My uncle, Judge Robert Emmet, of New York, was the first president 
of the Repeal movement in this country in sympathy with the efforts 
of Daniel O'Connell to bring about a repeal of the so-termed "union" 
with England. I took an active interest in this move until my uncles 
Robert and Thomas Addis were forced to resign their membership, in 
consequence of O'Connell's uncalled-for abuse of the leaders of the so- 
called Rebellion of 1798, in which my grandfather had taken an active 
part. Afterwards the different members of the family became identified 
in sympathy with the Young Ireland movement and at a later period I 
became personally acquainted with all the leaders who settled in this 
country. Then came the frightful famine of 1848 in which over 
a million of people perished, the death of every individual having been 
the direct consequence of English neglect, misrule, and indifference. I 
will again consider this subject at greater length. 

About 1848, there was a noted public fancy ball given in New York, 
from which undesirable persons were rigidly excluded, as was pledged 
would be done by the projectors. The members of my family failed to 
obtain a ticket for me so that I was not expected. I, however, com- 



Personates the Unprotected Female 129 

promised; having failed to get a gentleman's ticket I decided to go as a 
female. My mother was then staying with one of the family living in 
Broadway nearly opposite the New York Hotel and Waverley Place. 
The train from Philadelphia was late, and when I reached my uncle's 
house all had gone to the ball. I had no costume but expected to have 
been in time to procure one, I was fortunate in obtaining a red wig in 
the neighborhood, and with such selection as I was able to make from the 
cook's wardrobe, I got fitted out and made my entree at the ball as 
Miss Judy McCann, and with my sleeves rolled up, as if my arms had 
just been in a washtub. 

The Astor Place Opera House was not more than two blocks away 
but it took me nearly an hour to make the passage on foot, as I could not 
well stand the expense of a conveyance on such an occasion. I had to 
use both fists and feet vigorously to make my way through the crowd, 
until meeting a policeman who was of Irish birth, and telling him my 
name, he proceeded to clear a passage for me, as if the President of the 
United States had suddenly made up his mind to put in an appearance. 
I was of course stopped at the door, but fortunately being known to 
the members of the committee, I was passed and had no further trouble. 
I at once hunted up my mother, who was dressed as a Spanish lady of 
rank, a costume which suited her well, with her black eyes and hair, 
bright complexion, and with a still beautiful and youthful figure. She 
had not the slightest idea who I was, and resented with great indignation 
my attempt to get on speaking terms with her. She told me afterward 
my appearance was both vulgar and disreputable. I was, however, a 
belle throughout the night and was engaged for every dance until I 
was exhausted. I must have done credit to my supposed native land, 
dear old Ireland, for when I got my hands over my hips and set in to 
practise the steps of an Irish jig, such a crowd gathered about me as to 
stop everything else in the neighborhood. I knew so many people, at 
least by sight, and was able to recognize so many that I had a "most 
enjoyable evening." The only person I now recollect of tormenting to 
the limit of all forbearance was the elder James Gordon Bennett, the 
editor and founder of the New York Herald, whose eyes were excessively 
crooked, but I never succeeded in getting the old gentleman to tell me, 
even confidentially, how they became so 

I never shaved my upper lip after that ball. On the return of the 
officers and men from the Mexican War the wearing of a mustache was 
then just coming into fashion. About three months after the ball I 
paid a visit to New York and went to stay with my uncle, Bache Mc- 
Evers, then in Fourteenth Street, the second house on the lower side of 
the way from University Place. When I came down to dinner and met 



^30 Incidents of my Life 

my uncle, he said, "Go and shave yourself; I will have no one 
looking so much like a blackguard and gambler in my house." I 
told him I did not intend to shave nor to worry him. I went out, and 
got my dinner somewhere else. We met soon afterwards and became 
as good friends as before, but he never overcame his prejudice to a 
mustache. 

The Opera House and vicinity was soon after the seat of the Astor 
Place riots, on the night of May lo, 1849, when William Charles Mac- 
ready was playing Macbeth by special request of the stockholders. When 
Mr. Macready first visited the United States, in 1826, he brought a letter 
of introduction to my grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, from Archi- 
bald Hamilton Rowan, his old political friend of 1798, and he continued 
to keep up the same friendly relation with the family throughout his 
life. He is always termed an English actor, but I believe in private life 
he must have been an Irishman, both by birth and sympathy, or he 
would not have been a warm personal friend of Rowan nor would he 
have kept up through life his relation with the Emmet family. I was 
not present on the night he was acting in the Astor Place Opera House, 
but I had seen him often and knew him to be a gentleman of refined 
manners, tastes, and education. He certainly was directly the opposite 
in every respect of Forrest, whom I also knew, and never admired. In 
my work, The Emmet Family, in a footnote, connected with a letter 
written Jan. 6, 1827, by my grandfather to Rowan referring to Mr. 
Macready, I make the following statement: "Mr. William Charles 
Macready was a well-known actor of great talent whose private life was 
without blemish. He visited the United States in 1826 and 1848. His 
Jast appearance on the stage in this country was May 10, 1849, as Mac- 
beth at the Astor Place Opera House, on the evening of the noted Forrest- 
Macready riot. The country had been for some time in the midst of the 
turmoil engendered by the 'Know-Nothing' party in its efforts to arouse 
the passions and prejudices of native born against the Catholics and all 
those of foreign birth. Edwin Forrest, the actor, was a rival, and for 
some fancied slight availed himself of the 'Know-Nothing' excitement, 
and with the aid of his friends started the riot which resvdted in the death 
of a number of innocent persons, who were shot down by the troops 
(Seventh Regiment) called out to quell it. Mr. Macready was at the 
time a guest of the writer's uncle. Judge Robert Emmet, who then 
resided at No. 64 Clinton Place (Eighth Street). Mr. Macready was 
finally smuggled out of the theatre to a conveyance waiting in the 
neighborhood, and one of Judge Emmet's sons (Richard S. Emmet) drove 
him out of town to New Rochelle, where he took a train for Boston, 
arriving in time to catch a steamer by which he returned home. Mr. 



TV •■■^' 



.Q.M ,J3mm3 aibbA 2£morfT 



U1 




130 



have no one 
-ouse. " I 

nnt, and 



Mr. Macready tirst visited the United btates,in i«20,fte brought a letter 
of introduction to my grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, from Archi- 
bald Hamilton Rowan, his old political friend of 1798, and he continued 
to keep up the same iriendiv relati.-,n with the fsrnilv throi.iehout his 
life. Heisal 
he must hn\ 
would T 

have key. .^. ... 

not present on tht ting in the Ast' 



T 1-in'i '-Wf-Tl h 



Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D. 
From a crayon drawing made in 1849 

^nected with a 1 



-,.fc 



beth at the Astor Place Opera House, on the evening of the noted Forrest- 

Macready riot. The country had been for some time in the midst of the 

turmoil engendered by the 'Know-Nothing' party in its efforts to arouse 

and prejudices of native born against the Catholics and all 

;gn birth. Edwin Forrest, the actor, was a rival, and for 

'' t availed himself of ': ""' ^- ^ ■ '- ^ t 

his friends started tb 



rove 

iJoston, 

■jme. Mr. 



Irish Affairs 131 

Macready at that time was well advanced in life. He went on the stage 
in 1811 and retired in 1851." 

About this time I frequently met Samuel Lover at the house of Mr. 
Bache McEvers, who then lived in Broadway opposite Wanamaker's 
store, between Ninth and Tenth streets. He was a short, thick-set 
man and not very refined looking, or he was careless in his dress, but he 
was so thoroughly Irish that good nature and wit seemed to scintillate 
from him with every movement. It was almost impossible not to laugh 
on seeing him, even when there did not appear anything especially to 
laugh at. His description of the original Handy Andy was something 
to be remembered a lifetime. Lover was the first person I ever heard 
sing an Irish song in English which was not an Anglicized burlesque, 
to the same degree as the so-called negro melodies, in having nothing in 
common in either air or words with the original songs of the Southern 
negro of over fifty years ago. Very few of Moore's Melodies, in my 
judgment, can, in wording at least, be accepted as Irish. The airs of 
all his songs were of old Irish origin, but with all their melody and pathos, 
they are English songs, as if written by an Englishman living in Ireland, 
and few will allow one for a moment to forget Ireland's subjugation. 
While the music of nearly all of Burns's songs is unquestionably Irish 
in origin, the sentiment of Scotch nationality pervades every one of 
them and in their mongrel English they are Scotch "for a' that," and 
England's connection with Scotland is lost sight of. 

To Samuel Lover is due the credit of having been the first to openly 
express his indignation at the English stage representation of an Irish- 
man for over two hundred years. He was shown in print, as in our 
day, with a gorilla shaped face, as needing a bath, and whiskey soaked, 
a brimless hat and a pipe with too short a stem for use, and on the stage 
as a boor and buffoon in manners, together with a supposed inexhaustible 
supply of senseless jokes and songs. This "get up" was accepted the 
world over as the typical Irishman. Lover would allow nothing of the 
kind shown whenever he had connection with the stage, and through 
his efforts, beginning over sixty years ago, public opinion has finally 
become sufficiently educated to demand this insult to the Irish people 
should be abolished. 

Much intemperance has occurred in Ireland from the use of stimulants 
as a substitute for food, and yet the Irish are not apparently an intem- 
perate people. If the statistics published by the British Government are 
to be relied upon, they show that for many years past the average 
individual consumption of spirits has been twice as great in England, and 
three times as great in Scotland as in Ireland, and it has been made a cause 
of complaint in Parliament that the Irish do not drink enough to pay their 



132 Incidents of my Life 

share of taxes ! The average Irishman at home is never impolite nor 
a boor. Some of the most courtly persons in their manners I have 
ever seen, I have met among the most destitute and illiterate of 
the Irish people along the west coast. Robert Holmes wrote over 
a hundred years ago : ' ' Her virtues her own — her vices have been forced 
upon her.'" 

The American Medical Association had been but recently or- 
ganized, and as a medical student I was present at the first meeting 
in the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. One of the first 
actions taken by this body was an effort to raise the standard for admis- 
sion to the profession. In response it is said that the examinations were 
particularly strict in 1849-50. I certainly passed a creditable examina- 
tion, and was commended for my thesis, "On the Organic Circle of 
Nutrition," by the professor who was obliged to read it. Yet I had 
dissected but a single muscle in the body and graduated without having 
written a prescription or having attended an obstetrical case. I make 
this statement in no disparagement to the Jefferson Medical Faculty, 
as with advancing experience I have been impressed with the fact that 
these professors formed a remarkable body of men. Each was a host in 
himself, and I doubt if their equal, as when I first knew them, was ever 
gotten together in any other medical school, at home or abroad. The 
system of teaching was defective in this respect then, as it is to-day, and 
only those who were fortunate enough to obtain hospital appointments 
just after their graduation were ever able to gain the necessary practical 
experience to begin with. Otherwise the greater part of a lifetime was 
spent in private practice to attain by experience what was necessary at 
the beginning. I knew thoroughly the theory of medicine, and by 
means of plates my knowledge of anatomy was perfect, nor can I recall 
having had the slightest difficulty in answering any important question 
at my examination. 

On the day of graduation, after a long ceremony, I received my 
diploma and reached my lodgings late for dinner. But before I had 
finished, I was summoned by a communication from the Dean of the 
Faculty, to call upon him without delay. My first thought was that 
some mistake had been made about my diploma, and I answered the 
summons with a heavy heart. I was informed that Dr. Ruschenberger, 
then Surgeon-in-chief of the U. S. Navy, and a very distinguished man 
and writer had, as the agent of the Chilean Government, requested the 
Faculty to select from the graduating class one best fitted to take charge, 
as surgeon, of an expedition, and that I had received the appointment. 
The expedition was about to sail from New York under St. George Camp- 
bell, the engineer, who was to build the first railroad in Chili, for Meiggs, 



Declines Appointment to Chili 133 

who afterward became known as the "railroad king." I was to receive 
three thousand dollars a year in gold and all my living and travelling 
expenses paid, upon binding myself to remain until the completion of the 
road. This seemed a fabulous sum to one in my circumstances, and in 
relative value would be about equal to twelve thousand dollars in gold 
at the present time. 

I called on Dr. Ruschenberger with a note from the Dean, to notify 
him of my appointment and to thank him as being the indirect agent of 
my good fortune. I was shown into his office where I saw him worrying 
over pasting something on a letter. After standing at his elbow some 
little time without recognition, I was suddenly accosted with the question, 
"Can you write, sir? " To a man who was just beginning to expand with 
a full appreciation of his growing importance this question was some- 
what humiliating. My answer must have been as blunt as the question, 
for he looked up immediately and said, "Excuse me, sir, who could 
read that?" 

He took the note, read it, congratulated me, and apologized by the 
statement how necessary it was to write the signature in the plainest 
manner. He stated it was a common incident with him to be obliged 
to paste the signature on the letter and direct according to the postmark, 
and without having the slightest idea as to whom his correspondent was. 
In after-life I have been surprised how often this has happened in 
my experience, and how often the writer of the signature has been 
the sufferer in consequence of the letter going into the waste-basket 
unanswered. 

Without delay I called on the merchant in New York who had the 
fitting out of the expedition, and was very cordially received as a person 
of some importance. I was explicitly informed by him that no expense 
should be spared in fitting out my department, or for consulting any one 
as an expert who could aid me. I learned that about eight hundred 
men, women, and children were going and as we would likely be about 
three years up among the Andes Mountains, unable to supply any defi- 
ciency, it was necessary that no mistake of omission should be made in 
supplying everything which should be necessary, in addition to medicines 
and a surgical outfit. To make a beginning, I was requested then and 
there to write out a requisition for medicines, to which I could make 
additions afterward. I had no difficulty in writing out the names of a 
number of medicines, but soon I began to perspire freely on realizing 
for the first time the degree of responsibility I was about to assume. 
After chewing for a short time upon the end of my quill pen, to aid my 
thoughts as to what I should do, I took up my hat, went out to the mer- 
chant and told him I could not conscientiously accept the position. He 



134 Incidents of my Life 

looked at me as if he thought I was a fool — and I passed out without 
comment. 

I afterward learned that a yoimg graduate, who probably had not 
had my advantages, accepted the position, but I was never able to 
ascertain how he "made out." 

I have never had my sense of duty so severely taxed as on this occa- 
sion, where I had to put aside so completely every consideration of self- 
interest, and it seemed at the time as if my decision was the wiping out of 
all future prospects. 



Chapter XI 



Dr. Macnevin — Opening of the Emigrant Refuge Hospital on Ward's Island in 1850, after 
the Irish famine — Appointed a Resident Physician — My first day's experience — Soon 
contracted typhus or ship-fever — Was moved to the city to save my life — My position 
a very responsible and exacting one — Suffered within a year from a second attack of 
fever, and my recovery in doubt — Met at a public dinner John Mitchel, Meagher, O'Gor- 
man, and other Irish patriots who had been liberated, or escaped from Van Dieman's 
Land — Account of the Irish famine and suffering in consequence — The Irish emigrant 
on shipboard — A chapter in Irish history with which every one should be familiar — 
Religious bigotry roused in England for political purposes — Present at the first appear- 
ance of Jenny Lind in this country — Castle Garden described, then a noted place of amuse- 
ment — My services as a Resident Physician to the Emigrant Refuge Hospital — Building 
of the Panama Railroad with a frightful mortality — Description of a ball given by the 
physicians of Ward's Island to the lady school-teachers of Randall's Island — The 
punch, "a little thing of my own," a great success — Built a sailboat, which was also 
a success — Appointed a Visiting Physician and began practice in the city — Gulian C. 
Verplanck, the Shakespearian scholar, one of the Commissioners of Immigration. 




ITHIN a short distance of the counting-house I met 
Dr. Macnevin (a son of the Irish patriot), the only- 
person I knew in the city outside of my family cir- 
cle. He asked me what I was doing in New York 
and I asked him what he was doing downtown at 
that hour. It was just after the frightful famine in 
Ireland, when several hundred thousand emigrants 
had landed during the year in New York, and were dying in the streets 
of typhus or ship-fever, as it was called. Commissioners of Emigration 
were appointed, and they were erecting temporary buildings on Ward's 
Island for hospital purposes. A Medical Board of fifteen visiting physi- 
cians had been appointed, and Dr. Macnevin was one of the number. 
He was then on his way to the place of meeting to examine applicants for 
the position of a Resident Physician, and I accompanied him. I was 
the first victim and after an examination of four hours, during which 
time each member of the Board took a turn, I was judged competent and 
ordered to report for duty on the following day, 

I had never seen a case of ship-fever, yet a building containing one 
135 



136 Incidents of my Life 



hundred male cases was assigned to me, together with one hundred and 
fifty beds in addition for sick children and women, all of whom I had to 
visit regularly twice a day and as often as necessary at other times, to 
see any special case. 

I was also instructed to "go through ' ' once a day a ward near my 
quarters containing about one hundred aged women. I was somewhat 
staggered at the responsibility put upon me, but I accepted the situation 
with a light heart, as the only means by which I could gain experience in 
the practice of my profession. 

At an early hour next morning I began my work with the old women, 
feeling fully satisfied that I would accomplish what was expected of me 
if it could be done by my own efforts. I supposed all occupying beds 
in a hospital ward were sick, but when I was through, taking each woman 
in rotation, I had not a clear idea of my morning's work, beyond having 
apparently cheered up greatly the spirits of the old women by my atten- 
tion. In my effort to do justice to the complaints of each and to use to 
advantage the accounts of family or traditional ailments, which were 
communicated by each in confidence, I had written pages of prescrip- 
tions, having attempted to treat symptoms, singly and in groups. 

I was seen coming out of the building late in the day, weary and in 
want of food, when I was accosted by one of the staff with the salutation : 
" In the name of Heaven, Doctor, what have you been doing in there all 
day with those old women? Don't you know that is part of the Refuge, 
and all they need is a little tea and tobacco?" 

Fortunately for the sick in my service that day, when I was wanted 
and could not be found another physician had been assigned to them, and 
I was assisted each day thereafter. But further comment is unnecessary, 
in addition to what I have already expressed on our faulty method of 
teaching the practice of medicine. 

At the end of some ten days, I developed an attack of ship-fever and 
escaped death by a very narrow margin, but I was back again at my 
work within a month after the fever left me, although a leave of absence 
was generally granted for three months to recuperate. Contrary to rule, 
I had a second attack thirteen months later, which was so virulent in 
character that to save my life it was necessary in Dr. Macnevin's opinion 
to move me from the hospital atmosphere, with my nurses, to the house 
of my uncle, Mr. Bache McEvers, in the city, which he and his family 
vacated on a few hours' notice, and it took me two months to regain my 
strength sufficiently to resume my work. 

I had been unconscious for over a week, and had became so emaciated 
that no attempt could be made to get any clothing on me. With three 
men on each side I was lifted by means of the under sheet onto a stretcher, 



Resident Physician 137 

and placed on a mattress in the stern of an eight-oared barge and rowed 
down the East River to the foot of Fourteenth Street. I was then placed 
on a mattress in the bottom of an open express wagon, and driven to Mr. 
McEvers's house in Fourteenth street. When about half way down the 
river I became conscious from being out in the open air, and it was some 
time before I could understand where I was. It was a lovely morning 
in the spring and I recall the impression of its being a most heavenly 
scene, as I looked on the beautiful green banks of the river along Jones's 
woods below Seventy-ninth Street and the East River, I was so in- 
vigorated by the fresh air that I had a sound sleep, and as I was still 
sleeping on reaching the foot of Fourteenth Street I was left undisturbed 
until I awoke, and had received some nourishment, and my convalescence 
began from that time. 

I treated my patients in a weather-boarded, unplastered building, 
elevated some three or four feet from the ground and like a bowling alley 
with windows about twelve feet apart on each side, and with ventilators 
in the peak of the roof. In fact the same kind of building the late Dr. 
Hammond, while Surgeon-General, introduced into the army for hospital 
purposes during the Civil War. He had the modesty to appropriate the 
credit and allow it to be called the "Hammond Hospital Pavilion." At 
one time we had between three and four thousand beds in the Emigrant 
Refuge Hospital, and from want of means had at first to use this kind of 
shanty, and they were continued in use as experience showed the putting 
up of regular hospital buildings would have been folly. 

The windows were kept open night and day, at all seasons, and if I 
ever found a window closed, I would kick the glass out of it. Some visi- 
tors seeing this degree of exposure and the snow drifting in, presented the 
case and I was indicted by the Grand Jury for this evidence of inhuman- 
ity. The Legislature took part and sent a committee of investigation 
who ordered the hundred patients to be removed "to a ward in a good 
warm brick building." I had been having a mortality of less than ten 
per cent, under the most unfavorable circumstances as to complications, 
and when sixty of the hundred had died in the "warm brick building, " 
it was quietly intimated to me that I had better put the remainder back 
in the old quarters. Unfortunately, the physicians had to live in the 
brick buildings and the mortality among them was great. 

My second attack was scarcely avoidable. The late Dr. William C. 
Ravenel, of Charleston, S. C, a son of an old friend of my father, and 
whose aunt, Mrs. Daniel Ravenel, was a sister of Mr. Bache McEvers, 
was my assistant and roommate. He was taken sick within a few weeks 
after he went on duty and his case was one of the few I ever knew to 
recover with the complications from which he suffered. During the 



138 Incidents of my Life 

greater part of my service I was without an assistant, and when Dr. 
Ravenel became sick, I had four other assistants down with the fever 
and under my care, in addition to my other duties. I felt very much the 
responsibility of Dr. Ravenel's case, as I was to a great extent responsible, 
from having advised him to come up for examination and to avail him- 
self of the opportunities for gaining experience. The poor boy, for the 
Doctor was several years my junior, was seldom quiet unless I was in the 
room, and for days and nights the only sleep he got was while I was lying 
at his side with his arms around my neck. As I had to be with him all 
the time I could spare from my regular duties, he was not moved, for my 
convenience, to separate quarters. Living thus in such an atmosphere, 
in a room which could not be ventilated properly, and under the circum- 
stances with all the responsibility, it was not to be expected that I could 
escape a second attack. 

During my service in the hospital on Ward's Island, I had to give 
up all part in Irish affairs in consequence of my exacting duties and the 
distance from town. I, however, was able to attend the large dinner 
given in the old Broadway Theatre, and the welcome extended to the 
Irish leaders who escaped from Van Dieman's Land, now Tasmania. 
Through the assistance of friends in the United States, who fitted out an 
expedition from New York, they were able to get away. They were John 
Mitchel, Thomas Francis Meagher, Richard O'Gorman, and others, with 
several who were released afterward, and I became well acquainted with 
them all. 

My experience of the suffering of the Irish people after the famine in 
1847 and 1848 to the present time has been one of sad remembrance. 
With my experience I have never been able to forget the heartless course 
of the English Government, and the responsibility of the members of 
that Government as shown by the great loss of life from want and disease 
in Ireland, and for the death of many thousands of those who were 
obliged to leave the country. 

I have elsewhere^ considered this subject thoroughly, and those who 
may wish to see for themselves the proof or to gain additional informa- 
tion, I will refer to my work, Ireland under English Rule. 

I have written, in part, "No one has faithfully described the suffer- 
ing among the Irish emigrants, at this period, during their voyage 
across the Atlantic and especially among the women, many of whom 
had been in good circumstances previous to the famine. There was no 
mitigation of the sufEering of the people until definite action was taken 
by the United States Government to regulate the number of passengers 
in proportion to the certain number of square feet of deck-room for each 

' Ireland tender English Rule, etc., Second_Edition. G.^P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1909. 



The Irish Emigrant 139 

individual, and until the passage of a law forcing the owners of the 
vessels to furnish food, and to adopt a number of sanitary measures. 
Previous to this law the suffering endured was greater than on any slave- 
ship, and the death-rate was larger than it would have been from any 
pestilence on shore. In the beginning there was no limit to the number of 
passengers received to satisfy the greed of the ship-owner, so long as 
deck-room could be found; and all were expected to supply their own 
provisions. All, as a rule, were in the prime of life but there were very 
few whose vitality had not been already impaired by the famine before 
sailing. Through ignorance, and often from want of means the supply 
of provisions laid in for the voyage was deficient in quality and 
lacking in quantity. The result was that in a few weeks, if typhus 
fever had not been contracted before sailing, the supply of food would 
became exhausted before even half the voyage had been accomplished. 
For the remainder of the voyage a very limited quantity from the ship's 
stores would be doled out with a grudging hand. The article generally 
furnished was meal, from ground Indian corn, which was always more 
or less damaged, and with inadequate if not absence of facility for cook- 
ing, together with a scanty supply even of drinking water, the victims 
soon suffered from dysentery as a preparative stage for typhus, a disease 
also known as ' ship-fever. ' 

"With persistent sea-sickness, the herding together of the sexes as so 
many cattle, with no privacy nor means for making any attempt at 
cleanliness of either person or surroundings, it naturally followed that 
gradually the amenities of civilized life were lost, so, long before reaching 
port, the hopeless condition of the survivors became one of extreme 
imbecility of both mind and body. 

"The early emigrant ship was not always seaworthy and generally 
could be used in no other trade. Through the penurious practice of the 
owners they were never properly equipped and always short-handed, 
and relied upon such aid as the male passengers might give. Conse- 
quently these vessels were frequently from 150 to 160 days making the 
voyage, and often after sighting land they would be driven back by ad- 
verse winds nearly across the Atlantic again. No emigrant ship then 
carried a physician, and there was no help for those stricken with fever; 
all were too sick or indifferent to give much care to others. The mortal- 
ity, therefore, was great, and the writer can recall hearing of several 
instances where one half of the passengers had died and been thrown 
overboard before the voyage was concluded. The most pitiful circum- 
stance, and one that happened not infrequently, was the death of all the 
adults of a family, leaving a child too young even to know its name. 
As young children did not seem to suffer much from fever, many instances 



HO Incidents of my Life 

occurred where every other member of a family died on the voyage and 
the child remaining could never be identified. 

"It was not in my line of duty to board on arrival an Irish ship, but 
the fever wards were under my care and it was my duty to take charge of 
these cases as soon as they could be carried to the hospital. It was 
seldom that any passengers, male or female, on these early ships could 
obtain privacy enough to change their undergarments from the beginning 
to the end of the voyage and gradually they grew sick and indifferent 
and would be brought ashore weeks afterward unconscious from the 
fever, starved, and in a grievously filthy condition. From the boarding- 
officers I received most graphic accounts of the conditions found. Often 
for a month or more before the arrival of an emigrant ship the suffering 
was great from want of a siifiicient supply of food and fresh water, as has 
been stated ; consequently at the time of coming into port the proportion 
of sick emigrants and sailors would be greater than at any other time 
during the voyage. Generally on arrival all remained below in a helpless 
condition, as many had been for days without the slightest care. On 
opening the hatches the health-officer was frequently compelled to have 
the fire-engine pump started that, by means of a stream of water, the 
deadly atmosphere between decks, like that of a coal-pit, might be suf- 
ficiently purified to render comparatively safe the undertaking of moving 
those below. 

"In the foulest stench that can be conceived of, so soon as the eyes 
had become accustomed to the darkness prevailing everywhere but under 
the open hatch, a mass of humanity, men, women, and children would 
be seen lying over each other about the deck, often half-naked, many 
covered with sores and all with filth and vermin to an incredible degree ; 
the greater portion stupefied or in a delirious condition from typhus or 
putrid fever, cholera, and small-pox; all were helpless and among them 
were often found bodies of the dead in more or less advanced stages of 
decomposition. 

"Such a sight would surely prompt any being, above the brute, to call 
aloud to the Great God for vengeance upon those who rendered possible 
in any country a condition so destructive of life, that the people in their 
flight would prefer even such an alternative as this ! 

' ' No Prime Minister of England did his duty in meeting this frightful 
crisis in Ireland. Moreover, the charge of neglect of duty as well as 
vindictiveness against the sviffering people in Ireland at that period 
still stands unrefuted. Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell were the 
most indifferent. These Prime Ministers in turn, one at the head of the 
Whig and the other of the Tory party, through the aid of their supporters 
in Parliament, occupied their time with the perfecting and the issuing 



Chapter in Irish History Hi 

of Coercion Acts together with the Ecclesiastical Titles bill against 
"Papal Usurpation," etc., consequently, little thought was given to the 
famine in Ireland or to the exportation of food from the country. Had 
the exportation to England, sent out of the country to pay the rent, been 
stopped, all suffering would have ceased, for the supply, as already shown, 
was in quantity fully ten times more than sufficient to have prevented every 
death from starvation, and to have saved the lives of at least one million of 
people! 

"By English influence religious strife was incited throughout the 
coimtry for political purposes at a time when Christian charity at least 
shotild have interposed every attribute for the protection of a people 
in extremis. Yet arms were deposited at certain central points, if not, 
as the Irish claim, placed in every Lodge to arm the Orangemen, that 
these worthies might be prepared under any pretext to murder, literally, 
those defenceless from the effect of starvation and its attendant diseases. 

"The representatives of the English Government, at a later period 
when charged with this in Parliament, did positively deny that arms 
were distributed to the Orangemen, — possibly the arms were only placed 
within their reach. However, the statement can only be accepted as an 
official quibble, as the arms were placed at hand by the Government and 
it was intended that they should have been used by the Orangemen if it 
had been possible by any provocation to force an outbreak; and this 
purpose, divested of all sophistry, was for the extermination of the Catholic 
portion of the Irish people. 

"So intense was the feeling of hatred and intolerance at that time, 
roused by means of the Orange Lodges, against the Catholics in Ireland, 
in England, and wherever the English tongue was spoken, an antagonism 
which was spread in the United States, as the writer recollects, under the 
guise of the " Know- Nothing Movement," that the burden of disproof 
of this design of the Government must rest with the caviller, and he must 
show, by some new evidence, if not this, then what was intended to have 
been the fate of the Irish Catholics. 

"In all the long list of horrors which the Irish people have endured 
from English instigation, during the past six hundred years, nothing ever 
equalled the cold-blooded and brutal treatment from which the fever- and 
famine-stricken people of Ireland suffered at this period. 

"In accordance with Divine precept it may be the duty of the Irish 
people to forgive, but so long as there remains on earth an individual 
in sympathy with the sufferings of these poor people, England's course 
will not be forgotten. 

"The writer, from his earliest childhood, has been familiar with the 
woes of the Irish people, but the impression their suffering made upon 



142 Incidents of my Life 



him in early manhood, from his personal knowledge, has not yet faded 
but has become the more intensified after the passage of more than fifty 
years and so it will remain until death! How many millions are there 
of Irish birth or of Irish descent, scattered over the world, who hold the 
same feeling of bitterness, and if not checked, will not this influence 
ultimately bear bitter fruit for England? 

"It is beyond the charity of human nature that those who know the 
truth should make one single allowance for the great crime which has 
been perpetrated against Ireland during the past three hundred years 
at least. No people have ever suffered greater martyrdom than the 
Irish Catholics, from hatred fostered by religious bigotry and from wilful 
neglect by England of the duty encumbent upon responsibility. Of the 
many millions of Irish people who have lost their lives from the sword, 
from starvation, and from forced emigration, since England became 
responsible for the welfare of the country, scarcely a single life was 
lost which could not have been saved. 

"If we accept anything in Christianity, we must believe in the final 
Judgment, and that in the justice of Almighty God each shall be judged ; 
consequently, we must believe in adequate punishment. Nations have 
been punished as such, even though it may seem unjust that individuals 
who are innocent shotild suffer for the crimes committed by those who 
constitute the government. And on the great day of Judgment, if not 
before, justice will certainly be meted out and it is beyond the scope 
of human intellect to realize the extent of punishment which must be 
the portion of all who shall then be proved unjust stewards in their 
management of Irish affairs." 

Of late the question is being constantly raised as to the necessity for 
longer bringing forward and keeping in prominence evidence of Ireland's 
suffering in the past. It is claimed everything is being done by the 
present government to improve the condition of the country, and many 
of the English people themselves are advocating the cause of Ireland. 
These views are held by those who are in absolute ignorance of the past 
history of Ireland. During the centuries of England's dominion over 
Ireland, it is impossible to show one single instance resting on authentic 
evidence, where the English Government, or her agents, have ever kept 
good faith with Ireland when in a condition to repudiate it. English re- 
lations have been characterized by contempt, as for an inferior race, and 
with vindictive hatred, only found in response to the existence of an 
obligation which the recipient would gladly repudiate. England can 
not forget that Irishmen have rendered her many a good service, in the 
army, navy, and administrative work, more than she has received from 
her own sons. There is no need to influence Irish national sentiment for 



Home Rule for Ireland 143 

it has been established from the beginning with the majority and will 
remain unchanged until the veto power of the House of Lords has been 
destroyed as the first step. The House of Lords has always been in 
sentiment Ireland's worst enemy, and has been the direct cause of 
Ireland's misgovemment and suffering. This body has vetoed, when- 
ever it could safely do so, every measure passed by the House of Com- 
mons for the benefit of Ireland. When the House of Lords has been 
disposed of, the so-called union between England and Ireland must be 
repealed, and the term indicates the necessity. This is the most im- 
portant step to satisfy the Irish people, as they themselves had nothing 
to do with establishing the relation, which has stood for the past cen- 
tury in evidence of England's corrupt policy of statecraft. The union 
must be repealed before Ireland can exercise home-rule, as it provides 
special legislation only for Ireland, instead of a union in any respect, 
except to bear an increased burden of taxation. Home Rule must 
consist in Ireland being first in possession of the means for managing 
her own internal affairs, without interference on the part of England, 
and being furnished with the means necessary to hold England to her 
bond. 

All of this will not be bestowing a favor, but simply returning to Ireland 
what England robbed her of a century ago. Then, and not until then, 
will Ireland ever be otherwise than a threat to England's future existence 
as a first-class power and a blight to her prosperity. Simply then — but 
a beginning has been made, and so long as Ireland possesses not the 
slightest security for the futtire as to the good intention of either poli- 
tical party in England, she will hold the balance of power and continue 
to agitate; following a course of having Irish affairs block the way at 
every turn, until her purpose has been gained. She may then stand at 
England's back an equal, an ally, and even a friend, as part of Great 
Britain, but just so long as it may be to her interest and no longer. 
Ireland has never owed any allegiance to England and never will, unless the 
victim owes an allegiance to the highwayman who holds his gain by 
force, and the past six hundred years have been one continued protest 
against England holding her vantage by brute force. 

The night of September 7, 1850, with my mother and sister I was 
present on the first night of Jenny Lind's appearance in this cotmtry, 
at Castle Garden. It was a sight long to be remembered as well as 
her singing. Castle Garden then, as to-day, was a circular building, 
having had all the casemates removed so as to leave probably the largest 
room under a single roof used anywhere as a place of amusement. Fully 
three thousand people could be seated, and almost as many more could 
find standing room in the passageways and on the galleries outside, 



144 Incidents of my Life 

with the advantage that nearly every one could see what was going 
on and all could hear. 

I had many times been present on the most attractive nights of the 
opera, but on no other occasion did I witness such a throng collected 
together from all parts of the United States to do honor to the "Swedish 
Nightingale." Barnum was the manager and master of ceremonies, 
and was at his best in making good use of the occasion to exhibit P. T. 
Barnum and his works. But the grand feature was John W. Genin, the 
hatter. He had paid at auction, and as an advertisement, two hundred 
and twenty -five dollars premium for first choice of position for his seat, 
— a sum equal to three times that amount to-day in nominal value. 
He had made especially for the occasion a large, high-backed, gilded chair 
which he placed in the middle passageway close to the stage, and he 
sat there throughout the performance in ivdl dress, "the observed of all 
observers," but without such a soliloquy as Hamlet would have given. 

This incident recalls to my mind one of the most charming places 
of amusement, and one -unique in contrast to any place of the kind 
known to me, and I have seen many. During the summer at that 
time nearly every one of position or wealth in the city had a country 
place on Staten Island, or was passing the season as a boarder at some 
of the large hotels then in the neighborhood of Brighton. The Staten 
Island ferry-dock was in the same spot as to-day, and special boats were 
provided for the coming and return of those residing on the Island. In 
the evening there was always a cool breeze from the lower bay, and with 
moonlight in addition there was no place more attractive. There was 
no other place Jn the City of New York where one was more certain to 
meet at some time during the evening every person in society, vmless 
incapacitated, as well as every distinguished stranger in the city. 

I served as Resident Physician in the Emigrant Refuge Hospital, 
Ward's Island, for three years, having had in that time imder my charge 
about eleven thousand miscellaneous cases, including all the eruptive 
fevers among adults and children, with over nineteen hundred cases of 
adult males suffering from ship-fever. I got also some surgical experi- 
ence and served my time in the obstetrical department, where from five 
to ten women a day were delivered. The interne was in full charge of 
the practice for about twenty-two hours out of each day, and whenever 
the Visiting Physician was not on duty. I frequently volunteered in the 
Pharmacy, and after my regular work was finished, I served many hours 
at night helping to put up prescriptions. This experience was of 
great advantage when I began private practice, as a large number of 
physicians yet furnished their office patients with medicines, and I con- 
tinued the custom for a number of years. A revival of the custom 



Panama Railroad H5 

would be of great advantage to the profession, by stopping the repeating 
by druggists of old prescriptions for former patients and for all their 
friends, on one office fee. In addition, as part of my volunteer work, I 
made fully one thousand post-mortem examinations. I thus familiarized 
myself with every pathological condition, with the exception of true 
yellow fever, of which I saw very few cases, but we had a number known 
as Chagres fever. 

At that time the Panama Railroad was being built, and at the be- 
ginning it was part of the duty of the staff to select with the greatest 
care the laborers, who were nearly all young Irishmen, and a finer set of 
men physically were never selected for any service. Making allowance 
for all exaggeration, the mortality was frightful, and few returned but 
those who were brought back sick to Ward's Island. It was said at the 
time that with an allowance of eighteen inches for each body, laid side 
by side, the railroad track cotild have been covered with the dead from 
ocean to ocean! What a contrast to the present condition under proper 
sanitary regulations, where it is reported the average of deaths among 
those engaged in digging the Panama Canal is no greater than the average 
in the City of New York! 

During my service in the hospital I took no holiday, and with the 
exception of about three months and a half, while I was sick with ship- 
fever, I was on continuous duty for three years in a service from which 
a number died and many were obliged to resign in consequence of im- 
paired health. Yet I had a great deal of recreation, pleasure, and time 
for reading. We enjoyed some social advantages among the families of 
the employees and we were on good terms with the school "marms" on 
Randall's Island. Some of these ladies were comparatively young and 
many of an imcertain age, but the Bohemian life they led brightened 
them up, so that they were companionable. 

I recall a pleasant occasion in a return ball the physicians of Ward's 
Island gave to the "young ladies " on Randall's Island. Being of steady 
habits, I was delegated to get up the punch. I visited Harlem and pur- 
chased a new wash tub of medium size, in which I placed in time about 
half a barrel of Arrack punch containing one ingredient, "a little thing of 
my own," in the way of a gallon of strong green tea as a bracer. I 
worked at the job until it had not only gained a captivating taste, but a 
most inviting bouquet. I selected an elderly man who was supposed to 
have been a model of temperance to handle the dipper with an even hand. 
Some time in the small hours of the night, the level of the punch di- 
minished to a point where judgment as to the judicious addition of water 
was absolutely necessary, for there was no one who had time to make 
more, nor was there the material at hand for the purpose. As I had so 



146 Incidents of my Life 



completely disguised the taste of water in my brewing, in fact there was 
no evidence that it contained any, the old fellow evidently had some 
difficulty in determining the quantity of water needed. As this re- 
quired frequent tasting from time to time to be certain, at length he 
gave it up and decided so far as it lay with him, to take it as it was, with 
the result that he had to be taken off to his little bed long before morning. 
We found quite a number of expert fiddlers among the Irish patients, 
who had convalesced, so that as the Quaker expresses it in some play, 
they continued to "rub the tail of the horse on the bowels of the cat" 
all night. The ball began at eight o'clock and, as I came naturally by 
my fondness for dancing, for both of my parents were experts in the 
Terpsichorean art, I led off with the first dance. I started with a new 
pair of pumps and danced the last set at daylight in my stocking feet. 

During my first winter I built, after my own design, a sailboat about 
nineteen feet long, beginning with the centre-board box and building out 
from that to the stern and bow. It was said that I disregarded all rules 
applicable to boat-building, and yet I turned out a so-called nondescript, 
which I used for two years. She was so active in her movements that I, 
with professional bent, christened her "Senna and Salts. " 

I should state that I have a natural turn for mechanics, and at one 
time I possessed a collection of tools selected from almost every trade. 
I could carve in wood, and there was scarcely anything I wanted in wood 
or iron which I did not reproduce by some method of my own, unless the 
skill of an expert was needed. I will have to refer again to how a knowl- 
edge of mechanics aided me in the development of my work in plastic 
surgery. 

About two weeks before the expiration of my service as one of the 
Resident Physicians, my Visiting Physician resigned. To my astonish- 
ment and satisfaction I received in a few days an official communication 
from the Board of Commissioners of Emigration notifying me that I had 
been appointed a member of the Visiting Board of Physicians, and I was 
informed that the election had rested on my record of service. I was 
twenty years the junior of Dr. J. M. Carnochan who had been the yotmg- 
est member of the Board, and at the first meeting I became the secretary. 
My salary as Visiting Physician was four dollars a day, on which I soon 
married. With the prospect of building up a practice, I was fully 
contented when I was so fortunate as to receive twenty -five cents cash 
for a visit among the tenement houses, then situated along the East 
River below Fourteenth Street. I received about fifty dollars for my 
first year's work in private practice, but after that time I advanced 
rapidly. 

As secretary of the Medical Board I was thrown a great deal with 



Gulian Verplanck 147 

Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck, then one of the Commissioners of Emigration, 
and who took great interest in the affairs of the hospital. He was one 
of the most remarkable men I ever met for the extent of his information 
as a scholar. He was at one time a prominent lawyer, and gave a great 
deal of his time to conducting the management of many public institu- 
tions connected with the City of New York. In later years he was 
particularly distinguished for his literary work, and he edited and an- 
notated an edition of Shakespeare which was appreciated greatly at 
home and abroad. Mr. Verplanck being a cousin of my uncle, Mr. 
McEvers, he always seemed to take a particular interest in my work and 
position in connection with the Emigrant Hospital. 



Chapter XII 



Present at a fancy ball given in 1852 by Mrs. Coventry Waddell; Mr. James W. Gerard, 
appointed the first Police Commissioner, appeared in the uniform of the metropolitan 
police of London — The "watchmen" objected to wearing a livery, and received the 
support of a number of people who considered it as being derogatory to an American 
citizen — Leased a house in Fourth Avenue above 12th Street — The house soon became 
a favorite resort for young people — Mr. Peter Marie was a constant visitor — Nearly lost 
my life from making a visit to the Hospital during a blizzard — A graphic account of the 
difficulties — Suffered from an attack of inflammatory rheumatism — Visit to Bermuda to 
recuperate — My experience there — My sister at a military ball — How she obtained her 
trophies — The "Bridge" House built by my great-grandfather — Visit to the coral reefs 
and what I saw through a plate glass in the bottom of the boat — Returned home in the 
brig Trinidad — A tedious voyage with many discomforts — Received on board an accoimt 
of the Norwalk drawbridge accident, with a great loss of life — Shortly after my return 
to New York I took my mother to the water-cure establishment at Florence, Mass., and 
there met my future wife — The day for my marriage announced — Difficulties in arriving 
on time — My outfit described and considered to have been "quite the thing" — Arrived 
in time and married — Visited Mobile and New Orleans — Made many friends — Voyage 
up the Mississippi River and our fellow passengers described — What I incidentally saw 
and heard — The Mississippi River and details in relation to its course and navigation — 
The experience of two women who detailed their misfortunes — Reached home — The 
reception of my wife by the family. 




URING the winter of 1852, I attended, with my 
mother and sister, a notable fancy ball given by 
Mrs. Coventry Waddell, a leader in society. It 
took place at the country residence of her husband, 
on the square between Thirty-seventh and Thirty- 
eighth streets, and on the northwest corner of 
Fifth Avenue, then a country road. It was shortly 
before the property was sold to make way for the needed improvements, 
although the city had not yet reached the neighborhood. The house 
stood on the site of the present "Brick Church, " but the grade of Fifth 
Avenue had been lowered about fifty feet at this point, so that the house 
could not be seen from the street and could only be reached by a number 
of steps. 

The ball was pronounced by all a great success, as the entertainments 

148 



Metropolitan Police Uniform 149 

given by Mrs. Waddell always were. But the only incident of impor- 
tance I am now able to recall was the presence of James W. Gerard of 
Gramercy Park, a distinguished lawyer of the day, who appeared in the 
uniform of a metropolitan policeman, as worn in London. Among the 
first steps taken about this time, in the transition of New York from an 
overgrown village, was the appointment of Mr. Gerard, Police Com- 
missioner. He had just returned from a visit to London made for the 
purpose of studying the system used there. 

The "watchmen" of the city of New York were at that time almost 
in a condition of revolt with the prospect of having to wear a "livery. " 
It was remarkable that a number of persons in New York were in sym- 
pathy with the action of these men, who held that having to wear this 
"livery" was not in keeping with "American institutions." These 
"doughty men of the watch" had become about as useless a set of 
individuals as could have been gotten together, and did nothing but 
draw their pay, and rendered no service but to vote, as a body, the 
straight Democratic ticket. The last-named function was, in connection 
with them, the only one I ever knew to their credit. They doubtless 
had some Falstaff in command who seems to have been unknown to 
fame. They wore "citizen's dress" and had nothing about them to 
indicate their office but a shield with the city arms and their number, 
which was always pocketed when their services were needed! Mr. 
Gerard had to wear the uniform in public for some time before the 
public and "watchmen" got accustomed to it and finding he was not 
ashamed of it, finally it was adopted. 

After January, 1853, I rented a three-story house, No. 113 
Fourth Avenue, the second house on the east side above Twelfth 
Street. There was no house in New York more popular than this 
one with the young people who made up the social life of New York 
over fifty-five years ago. My sister was a good musician, and we often 
had a visit from my wife's younger sister. Miss Eliza Duncan, after- 
ward known as Aunt Didy, as we will see, who had a remarkably 
good voice. In addition, both my mother and wife had the tact for 
entertaining. 

I recall Mr. Peter Marie as a young man who was a great friend of 
the family and a frequent visitor. He was not a dancing man, but very 
bright, had a great talent for social life and no dinner at which he hap- 
pened to be present ever proved a failure. I remember first meeting 
socially Mr. Marie, some years my senior, in 1848 at the house of my 
uncle, Thos. A. Emmet, then Master in Chancery for the City of New 
York, and living on the southwest comer of University Place and Ninth 
Street. This locaHty to Fifth Avenue, up to Fourteenth Street and down 



^50 Incidents of my Life 

Fifth Avenue, to Washington Square was then the centre of social hfe 
in New York City. 

The recital of one reminiscence naturally leads to another, and I 
may therefore recall so far as I am now able to do so the names of dif- 
ferent families living in this neighborhood. Opposite Mr. Emmet's 
house lived John R. Livingston and family, rather quiet people but 
connected with and known to every one. Next door lived the grand- 
daughters of Louis Morris, Jr., who was a son of Louis Morris one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence from New York. During 
the Revolution their grandfather served with Gen. Nathaniel Greene in 
South Carolina, where he married and lived imtil his death. Miss 
Sabina Morris and her sister were said to have been at that time the 
handsomest women in New York. One of them married a member 
of the Porter family, who owned the American side of Niagara Falls. 
The other branches of the Morris family still lived in the country on their 
estates like their neighbors the Van Courtlands. The head of the Van 
Courtland family whom I knew was Dr. Bibby, a grandson of a Hessian 
surgeon in the English army who remained in New York after the Revolu- 
tion. He married one of the family and took the name. On the north- 
east corner of Ninth Street and University Place was the house of the 
head of Brown Brothers, a firm then most prominent in building up the 
financial reputation of New York. Directly in the rear and in Ninth 
Street was the house of Mr. Allen, a member of the firm of Brown 
Brothers and a son-in-law, who lost his wife and all his children in the 
steamer Arctic which was never heard of after leaving port. Among the 
large passenger list of this ship were the names of many members of 
families prominent in New York. Next door, to the north of the Browns, 
lived my uncle, Mr. Edward Boonen Graves, the head of an old mer- 
cantile firm of New York. Next to the opposite corner in Ninth Street 
lived Mr. Goodrich, then an old man, but still known as "Peter Parley, " 
who, particularly in his earlier writing, gave more information and 
pleasure to the young people of this country before the middle of the 
last century than any other writer. Yet in his ignorance of special 
information he was often unjust to the Catholics and Jews. Around the 
corner in Eighth Street towards Broadway lived Judge Ulshoeffer whose 
daughters were intimate friends. At a ball given by them I saw for the 
last time Washington Irving, whom I knew. He did not die immediately 
after, but it was the last time we ever met. I remember him as most 
considerate for young people, whom he never forgot. The cast in his 
eye, instead of detracting from his appearance, increased the expression 
of his benevolence, for which he was noted. At this ball I was presented 
to Miss Semmes of Washington, the most beautiful creature I ever saw, 



The Judge and Mr. Broadway 151 

whom I had the pleasure of knowing in after-life as a schoolmate of my 
wife. Her brother, then in the U. S. N. and afterward the commander 
of the Alabama, was present at the same ball. I did not make his 
acquaintance but knew well his brother Thomas, the distinguished 
lawyer of New Orleans. Among a large number of persons living in this 
neighborhood, I will mention the name of Mr. Putnam, a prominent 
citizen, and the founder of the house of G. P. Putnam's Sons, our noted 
publishers, who then lived on the south side of Eighth Street, between 
University Place and Fifth Avenue. 

On the corner of Fourteenth Street and Fourth Avenue, where the 
German Savings Bank now stands, was then the site of Broadway's mar- 
ket, one of the largest uptown. Broadway weighed about four hundred 
pounds and generally remained all day where he was placed in the morn- 
ing, but he knew every one and no man enjoyed a joke or a good story 
more than he did. One morning on going there to order my dinner I 
fotuid him convulsed with laughter and close on to having an apoplectic 
attack. In time he was able to tell me : ' ' Your friend the judge around in 
Broadway has just gone and he has his bile so stirred up he will be sick 
if he does n't look out, and he blames me. He was in here yesterday and 
you know he is always finding fault with the prices and how much it 
costs him to feed his family. After spluttering some time he out with it 
and said: 'Now you know, Broadway, the doctors are all saying it is 
very unhealthy to eat so much meat, and my women downstairs eat a 
lot of it. Now have n't you got something that is not so appetizing, for 
they certainly will be sick if they eat so much meat. ' " Broadway said 
he pointed out to the judge a goose which he said he could have for 
fifty cents, stating that it would look well, but that his women would not 
overeat themselves with it. The judge said "just the thing and mind 
you mark it for the kitchen." He had never seen the judge look so 
happy, he said. At the door he came back and stated he had forgotten 
to tell him that he would have some friends to dine with them that 
evening — "so send me a good roasting piece of beef and mind that there 
is a plenty of tenderloin with it. " 

The judge had called that morning under the impression that Broad- 
way had been responsible in some way for a mistake which had mortified 
him exceedingly. The judge it would seem did not appreciate the 
possibility that the cook had evidently some knowledge of goosefiesh 
and of making the proper use of a good thing when she had the opportun- 
ity. At least she and the women downstairs enjoyed the tenderloin 
for their dinner, and the goose was served for the dinner upstairs. As 
all present at the projected feast had long passed the period of life when 
much could be expected from the remains of what nature had provided 



152 Incidents of my Life 

in early life for mastication, nothing could be done with the goose, as 
its resilient properties proved too much for them. If they got any 
benefit from the goose they must have resorted to a procedure claimed 
to have been practised in Ireland during the great famine, and called 
"potatoes and point. " A red herring would be suspended over the pot, 
and as each took out a potato it would with all due ceremony be pointed 
towards the herring, and it was claimed that quite a fishy flavor was thus 
imparted to the pomme de terre. My friend the judge being of Dutch 
origin probably never heard of the Irish method, and it may be that it 
was just as well. Never having had an occasion for trying "potatoes 
and point" I cannot speak from experience, but I doubt as to its efficacy 
even with a goose and especially in a case where nothing was left to the 
imagination. 

The judge had accused the cook of having deliberately made the 
exchange, but he said she had the most innocent face he had ever seen. 
He concluded by saying: "I do not like to be uncharitable but some- 
how I can't help thinking she knew that goose was tough, and yet she 
looked so innocent. But I have heard some of these Irish people 
can keep a wonderful straight face when they are up to some of their 
deviltry!" 

Six months after my appointment as Visiting Physician and late 
in the winter of 1852-3, I nearly lost my life in the discharge of my duty. 
There was a blizzard with a fall of snow I have never since seen equalled, 
and for two da^T's there was scarcely any attempt made to travel on foot 
or by vehicle. I lived in Fourth Avenue near Twelfth Street, and in 
front of my door was the track of the Harlem and New Haven Railroad, 
which had its station then near the southeast comer of Canal Street, and in 
Broadway. Early in the morning of the third day a car passed with a 
steam snow-plough to open the way. I decided it was my duty, as the 
youngest man of the Medical Board, to make an attempt to reach the 
hospital on Ward's Island, where I knew no Visiting Physician had been 
able to report for service for four days. I was two hours on this train 
before reaching my station at One Hundred and Tenth Street, and where 
the railroad crossed the Harlem fiats there was an open waste covered 
with snow three or four feet deep, and frequently I found drifts over 
my head. It was several hours before I was able to reach the ferry -house 
on the river, and, notwithstanding the thermometer v/as at zero or 
below, I was in a profuse perspiration in consequence of the great exer- 
tion I had made. The river had been frozen over, as v/ell as the greater 
portion of Hell-Gate, but it was flood-tide, and when I reached the river 
it was filled with large cakes of ice piling up on each other from the force 
of the current. I could induce no one among the ferrymen to accompany 






k 



•iQ 9i9ffw J931J2 riioi I lo Jool bae 
3dI sHj no bseeoiO JammH 



^52 Incidents of my Life 



!"he goose, as 

:r,t any 

'aimed 



well. Mever hu.. ^.g ha J du occasion tor irying "j 
I cannot speak from experience, but I doubt as to its > 
e\ :.n vvitli a gO(?5e and especially in a case where nothing was lef i 
imagination. 

The judge had accused the cook of having dehberately mt 

exrhang^, v.„f he ssid .he ^id rhe most innocent face he had ever 

stable but some- 
■ ^.nd \i-t <hf> 
loo.v.... •. 

can keejj . 
deviltry!'* 

SLx naon Emigrant Refuge Hospital, Ward's Island, 
m the winter of > and Foot of i loth Street where Dr. 
There was a bUz. gj^^gt Crossed on the Ice 
and for two days there was scarcely any attempt made to travel on foot 
or by vchidf. T lived '.n F-u-:'. Av.-v;.- -^f.-- T>.T.|nh str^.-f ..r.., ;^ 
front ' 
whic]] . _ 

Broadway. £arly m the morning of the third day a car passed with a 

^team snow-plough to open the way. I decided it was my duty, as the 

St man of the Medical Board, to make an attempt to reach the 

or.. Wr I d's Island, where T knew no Visiting Physician had been 

I was two hours on this train 

' ■ ' ^''■' '^''- -^■'^ Street, and where 

• n waste covered 



■>r 

.\er- 

roater 

river 

n tne force 

'^ accompany 



Inflammatory Rheumatism 153 

me in my effort to cross ; but this did not discourage me, as I was strong, 
self-reliant, and foolhardy, I took a light flat-bottomed skiff with each 
oar secured in a grummet and crossed the river by dragging the boat from 
one piece of ice to another. Several times I fell in, getting wet above my 
waist, but I Anally succeeded in landing on the island with my clothing 
frozen on me, and in quite an exhausted condition. I got a drink of 
brandy and visited my own patients, together with a number in the other 
services, wherever my advice was needed. I recrossed the river in the 
same manner, but with less exertion, as there were a number of open 
spaces where I was able to row. It was just dark when I reached the 
little railroad station on the viaduct, which I found empty, without a 
fire, and with the prospect of freezing to death before morning if no 
train passed. 

I should have remained at the hospital, but it was before the days 
of local telegraphs or telephones and I was tmwilling to subject my family 
to so many additional hours of uncertainty. A train came up, fortvmately, 
soon after and stopped on my signal, so that I reached home after twelve 
hours' exposure, with my strength greatly overtaxed and weak from 
fasting all day, as I had neither time nor thought at the hospital to take 
any food. 

I have detailed these circumstances as my experience was an interest- 
ing one from a medical standpoint. To my surprise, I took no cold and 
next day suffered only from fatigue, but after some days I developed 
rheumatic fever and lay for six weeks on cotton, during which time I 
believe not a joint in my body, except my spine, escaped the inflamma- 
tory action. After I began to sit up, I suffered for a few days from sudden 
attacks of palpitation and from syncope. Later on I twice dropped out 
of my chair unconscious for a moment in consequence of a draft of cold 
air caused by a window being opened suddenly behind me. But I 
convalesced, and from that time I have never been conscious until of late 
of any heart disturbance, beyond an occasional intermitting pulse not 
due to organic disease. I can at my age ascend a stairway, so far as my 
broken leg will allow me, with as little disturbance of my respiration as 
at any time in my life. 

I, however, did not regain my strength beyond a certain point and was 
in consequence advised to go to Bermuda for a change, as I had been 
actively engaged in professional work for a number of years with but 
little recreation. I made the voyage accompanied by my mother, sister, 
and a young friend of the latter. 

Before reaching Bermuda I was apparently fully restored. The 
visit led to a delightful reunion for my mother with all her relatives and 
old friends she had not seen for so many years. My great -uncle. Prof. 



154 Incidents of my Life 

George Tucker, of the University of Virginia, came from Bermuda and 
when he had become settled, my grandmother and my mother, his 
niece, paid him a visit, as he had left Bermuda early in life. My mother 
met my father for the first time at the University and they were married 
a few months after. 

In Bermuda we were entertained apparently by ever}^ one, and at 
the dinners, which were the chief functions, the Madeira wine was a 
prominent feature. The wine in the cellars of some of the old gentlemen 
had become famous through the appreciation of the army and navy 
officers who had been stationed there and I, as a stranger, was called 
on to do my duty. The custom of toasting each guest was still in vogue, 
as an excuse for refilling the glasses, but as I was not an habitue, I soon 
got an attack of the gout, my first and last experience. The taste of these 
old gentlemen seemed to have been developed to a remarkable degree. 
At a dinner I heard the story, with the names given, of the two old gentle- 
men of a past generation, who were noted for their accuracy of taste. 
One insisted that the particular wine had a taste of iron or rust, and the 
other was equally as positive that it was one of leather. To settle the 
bet which resulted, the cask was emptied when a large key was found 
with a leather thong attached. 

We paid a visit to the Tucker family at the Bridge House, in Somerset 
Parish, which was built in the middle of the eighteenth century by Chief- 
Justice John Tucker, my great-grandfather, and I am the happy possessor 
of his hall-clock used at the time. During our visit the young ladies and 
I were invited to attend a grand military ball to be given at St. George's, 
about twenty miles distant. I had not entirely recovered from my attack 
of gout, and as the fashion was to have the trousers fitted over the boots 
like a gaiter, and to extend nearly to the toes, it was alwa3^s necessary 
to remove boots and trousers together, so that I was obliged to go in 
my slippers. I accompanied them to the reception-room, and having 
secured a chaperon I settled down to spend the evening with the Irish 
Corporal of the Guard and with my foot elevated. The Corporal was 
very amusing but I found I was no match for him in "swapping " stories, 
as he had the advantage of the pimch bowl and I had sworn off. To my 
surprise, the ladies reported they were ready to return several hours 
earlier than I had expected. On our return, my sister told me that the 
officer detailed by the Master of Ceremonies to look after her especially 
had evidently been the instrument for emptying at least one decanter of 
wine at dinner, and was then fuU}^ under its effects. As a consequence, 
he made the most extravagant expression of his devotion and insisted 
that she should test his sincerity. So urgent did he become that at last 
she made him kneel in front of her and with his knife cut off all the but- 



Visit to the Coral Reefs 155 

tons from the front of his uniform, handing them to her one by one. 
While he was at work, from the difficulty he had in maintaining the up- 
right position, his progress was slow. He necessarily stopped all the 
dancing and with the spectators looking on very much amused at his 
dilemma. After she had received all the buttons from him, she bade 
him good-night and left the room. 

My first impulse was to take a hand, but he was so much laughed at 
that I was asked to let the matter drop, and I did so. As he had to 
appear on parade early next morning without his buttons, he was fulty 
punished by the reprimand of the commanding officer. 

I found in the Bridge House some very old family portraits, going 
back to the early part of the eighteenth centur}'-, which I had reproduced. 
All the woodwork of the old house was of Lebanon cedar and the sides 
of the rooms on the first floor were wainscoted and panelled in the same 
wood. The effect was beautiful where darker portions from the roots 
were inserted, giving many shades and a great variety of colors. 

One day as I was driving I saw close in shore from the cliff at the 
lighthouse a most remarkable scene in a fight between two male whales, 
each of which was at least seventy feet in length and the encounter 
lasted over an hour. They would swim toward each other rapidly, 
head on, and butt; then turning suddenly they would slap each other 
with their tails and the sound from the blows could be distinctly heard 
on shore. 

Among the coral reefs extending for miles out from the coast, there 
were clear spaces between the reefs, and on a still and bright day a view 
of one of these spots was a remarkable sight. Many of the fishing boats 
had a large plate of glass placed on one side of the keel and through this 
glass, by. covering the head, as a photographer, it w^as possible with 
somewhat of a magnifying effect to see everything going on and to a 
great depth. The spectacle presented was a most fascinating one, 
from the great variety in shape of the vegetable gro'wi;hs, far in excess 
of anything ever seen on land and the countless shades from every color 
in the spectrum, which could never be reproduced artificially; with 
the oddest-looking fish of every color, shape, and size and some with the 
most ludicrous expression of every emotion, with that of toothache, 
headache, dyspepsia, of the hlase, and I saw one looking as if he had 
picked up somewhere the greenest kind of an unripe apple. Cruikshank 
must have found there the "Artful Dodger" expression and even that 
of Fagin, and I saw the caricatures of so many persons I have known in 
the flesh, that I spent hours in thus amusing myself. The shark can- 
not be admired under this exhibit, as he was everywhere seen as a sneak, 
and the most consummate coward among all the denizens of the sea. 



156 Incidents of my Life 

Passing along the dock-front of Hamilton quite late one night, I 
was suddenly overpowered by the subtle fragrance of Bermuda onions 
being fried! As I stood spellbound, I was saluted: "Say, Doc, don't 
you want some supper?" I recognized the voice of the captain of the 
brig Trinidad, from whom I had engaged passage for my return to New 
York, and I immediately took steps to show that I considered him worthy 
of my friendship. I enjoyed greatly what I supposed was a beefsteak, 
of fair quality, with a basis of fried onions, and some beer. The next 
day I was told I had eaten part of a whale I had seen a few days before, 
which w-as about one hundred feet in length, from which the blubber had 
been removed, when, by law, the negroes and others are entitled to re- 
move as much of the flesh as they wanted. When I saw the whale and 
stood on its back it had just been secured to the bank and already, as I 
could feel, a countless number of sharks were tugging away at the carcass. 

While I was in Bermuda I was told a shark twenty-seven feet in length 
was caught, and in its stomach were the leg-bones of a man crushed 
off at the thigh and encased in a high cowhide boot, the sole of which \^'as 
filled with large-headed iron tacks. The flesh had all been digested from 
the bone, but the heavy boot and leg-bones in it must have given the' 
shark a long period of various symptoms of dyspepsia, with a gloomy 
prospect ahead. The question is yet by no means settled that a shark, 
except probably in the East Indian waters, will attack a living body under 
ordinary circumstances. In Bermuda I learned nearly all found there 
are of the so-called "man-eating" variety, yet there had never been a 
well authenticated instance of any one having been attacked while in 
bathing. The shark's sight seems to be defective, as his first im.pulse is 
to put his snout against whatever he sees, probably to smell it, if that 
sense could be exercised under water and in the absence of free air. 
The sponge-hunters never seem to be injured, and frequently strike the 
shark on the snout, or if alone stick their knife in him should he be 
too persistent in his attentions. He is beyond all doubt a scavenger 
by choice, and the finding of the leg in his stomach would prove nothing, 
as it would be more likely he had obtained it from the dead body of a 
sailor who had fallen overboard from some ship. 

The old brig Trinidad was the best vessel I could find, as we returned 
home rather late in the season, and while I did not expect a great deal, 
even that little was not for the better and we had to bear with much be- 
fore we reached New York. She was an old tub which had been used 
for years as a cattle ship, to supply with fresh beef the military and naval 
officers stationed in Bermuda. We began our voyage with a wind which 
promised to take us at least some eighteen or twenty miles beyond the 
coral reefs. But we had scarcely gotten out of Hamilton harbor before 



A Tedious Voyage 157 



it died out and we lay a week off the same point, rolling in the hot sun 
until the pitch began to ooze from the seams in the deck, and I never be- 
fore saw water in a long roll so like oil. The only objects seeming to have 
any energy or to make a movement unless obliged to were the sharks, 
which were in constant motion about the vessel day and night and seemed 
to be in myriads. The captain said they would keep about the vessel 
until she passed Sandy Hook, and then wait outside and return with the 
vessel to Bermuda. When on his way to Bermuda with a load of cattle, 
sometimes several a day would die and be thrown overboard, and the 
sharks would seize on them immediately. He undertook to point out 
one shark in particular which he stated had been with him every voyage 
he had made in years. He claimed to be able to recognize the fish from 
a large white scar it had on its body, as the result of some shot or injury. 
The water was so clear that I attempted to pick out the particular shark 
and several times I thought I saw the large white mark. The circum- 
stance, however, would render the case doubtful, as it is well known that 
the shark, pompano, and other scavengers of the sea always eat the 
wounded as soon as their blood begins to escape from a wound. 

The voyage lasted seventeen days, and as there was not a great deal to 
do beyond giving a helping hand to the sailors, the need for refreshment 
was of frequent occurrence. As we had a cargo of Bermuda onions, I 
frequently ate them raw, as I might have done from a cargo of apples, 
and I got to be very fond of them. 

One day, while we were still rolling off the Naval Station, I was roused 
by the captain from my nap in a hammock I had swung up in a shady 
place on deck, and a New York Herald was handed to me. The first 
thing which caught my eye was an account of the dreadful Norwalk 
accident on the New Haven Railroad, where two cars filled with passen- 
gers, with the engine and baggage cars, had been run into the river from 
an open drawbridge. 

There had been a meeting for several days in New York of the 
American Medical Association, and these cars were filled with New 
England delegates returning home. Many had their wives with them, 
and all in one or two cars were drowned. After looking over the list 
of dead I expressed my thanks there was no one in the list I knew or had 
ever heard of. 

My mother had not been well for some time, and while on the passage 
I determined to take her up to a noted water-cure establishment at 
Florence, near Northampton, Mass., where I felt she would be benefited 
by observing the exacted course of exercise, diet, and hours of sleep. A 
few days after our arrival in New York I took her up there, and one of 
the first persons I was introduced to was Miss Catherine R. Duncan, a 



158 Incidents of my Life 



daughter of the late Mr. John Duncan of Autauga County, Alabama, 
near Montgomery, and she in time became my wife. Among the list of 
dead by the Norwalk accident as printed in the Herald, prominent 
reference was made to a number of her family supposed to have been lost. 
These were on their way to join Mrs. Harris, her sister, and herself, who 
were staying in the establishment on account of Mrs. Harris's health. 
Their brother, sister, and Mrs. Harris's children happened to be in the 
third passenger car, which was broken in two and rested on the top of the 
submerged ones, and the passengers in it were not thrown into the water. 

After the return in the following autumn of the Harris and Duncan 
family to the home of Mr. N. R. Harris, a prominent lawyer of Montgom- 
ery, Alabama, the date of otu: marriage yet remained undetermined on 
account of Mrs. Harris's health. At length it was decided we should be 
married on February 14, 1854. The railroad had not yet been completed 
through to Montgomery, and in consequence of a storm and "wash-out" 
on the road, the letter fixing the date of our marriage was delayed and 
did not reach me until it was scarcely possible for me to arrive in Mont- 
gomery in time unless I fortunately made every connection. The letter 
reached me just before the hour of my dinner, at six o'clock, and as soon 
as I had finished, I hastened doMTi to my tailor, who had his shop in 
Ftilton Street. To show that the vanity of human generations has never 
been confined to any one period, I will state that I stood two hours or 
more until several pairs of trousers were cut and basted upon my legs, 
as it was then the fashion to have the fit as tight as possible over the thighs 
and at the same time to admit of their removal. When I look at the 
shrunken, crooked, and wabbling appendages with which I am at the 
present time connected, I can only console myself with the reflection that 
at one time in my life they were more presentable. 

My "get-up " for a travelling suit after marriage was of a thin woollen 
cloth in small black and white checks, with a cap, cravat, gaiters, and in 
black and white enamel my shirt studs and sleeve buttons were all to 
match in pattern and color. My coat had a breast pocket outside for the 
handkerchief, from which it was expected to project to the fullest extent 
short of falling out, and the whole was based on a glove-fitting pair of low- 
quarter shoes of patent leather, and black silk stockings. This was 
considered by the projector as a most striking and attractive combination 
and one to excite the envy of all young women who had not "come to it. " 

My whole outfit of several suits was finished and delivered at my 
house the next morning by six o'clock, was packed, and I caught the 
train leaving at eight for the South. By good luck I made all the con- 
nections and in three days I arrived, the night before the day appointed. 

As I was not a Catholic we were married in Mr. Harris's house, with 



Wedding Journey 159 



only a few intimate friends present, in consequence of the uncertainty 
of my arrival. 

That night we started down the Alabama River on a steamboat for 
Mobile and New Orleans, where I made the acquaintance of a host of 
friends and we were entertained by every one who knew my wife. Among 
her old friends I met in New Orleans was John A. Campbell, afterward 
a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and who resigned at 
the beginning of the Civil War. He was arrested after the war with Mr. 
Jefferson Davis and others connected with the Confederate Government 
and confined in Fortress Monroe. These prisoners were well crowded 
together in the casemates and were not treated with any special considera- 
tion — the common criminal would have received more. Judge Camp- 
bell was a frequent visitor at my house. He was educated at West Point, 
a man of great learning, and was considered by those who knew him as 
possessing the best legal mind of his day. During his last visit, at the 
urgent request of the family, he gave a detailed account of his imprison- 
ment, and one illustration will serve as fully for the purpose as more. 
He stated that their food was served in bulk, generally half-cooked salt 
pork and hardtack, by a not over-clean negro in a brown-soap box, to 
the side of which the particles of soap were still adhering, when, throwing 
the box from his shoulder to the floor to give due notice to all, he would 
shout out, "Here men is your vittils, " and fingers and teeth had to do the 
disintegration. 

From New Orleans we took passage on one of the magnificent floating 
palaces of that day, to ascend the Mississippi River, an undertaking then 
far more of a circumstance than an ocean voyage to Europe at the pres- 
ent time. The passage required from ten to twelve days, and as there 
were then no competing railroads, the cost of a first-class passage was so 
great as to be prohibitory for all but the well-to-do. The society was 
therefore only among the educated and quiet people, as there were no 
vulgar and "shoddy " rich in those days. The time of our passage was in 
the spring and the boat was crowded with the Louisiana planters and 
their families who were going North to spend the summer, or were on 
their way to Europe. I have no recollection at any other period of 
my life or within the same number of days to have ever met with so 
many charming people. No introduction was needed, as the respect- 
ability of every one was guaranteed from custom and the surrounding 
circumstances. Therefore the social intercourse was uninterrupted for 
the voyage at least and a longer acquaintance was only optional. 

The captain and the gamblers were the people who devoted the most 
attention to their toilet ; and the former was quite as prominent a feature 
on his boat as the hotel proprietor was in connection with the Washing- 



[6o Incidents of my Life 



ton hotel which I have described. The women were bright, educated, 
and neariy all had travelled abroad intelligently. I saw several instances 
of a woman entertaining a number of men about her, and each felt that he 
was taking part in the conversation. And in one instance I recall a 
young woman speaking EngHsh, French, and Spanish to different men 
standing about her, and she was able to keep up the conversation without 
any interruption. The attainments and average intelligence of the men 
at that period was certainly greater than is found to-day, and I cannot 
recall a single instance of holding a conversation, with the elder men 
especially, but I learned something new. 

The stopping of the boat at night along the river bank to take in 
sugar and cotton, was as weird a sight as I ever witnessed. The light 
was furnished by burning the resinous portion of the pine-tree, or "light- 
wood" as it is called. This was placed m a large iron basket attached to 
a tall iron staff stuck in the ground when in use. 

Along the lower portion of the river many of the negroes were evi- 
dently of a different race from the thick lip and flattened nose of the 
Congo negroes usually met with in the Atlantic States, Georgia, and 
Alabama, and who were originally brought from Virginia. Those on 
the river were taller as a rule, with as straight features as the Caucasian, 
and were evidently far more intelligent than the Eastern negroes. They 
had a chant to which they kept step while at work, which was as wild and 
as characteristic of Eastern origin, but at the same time it was different 
from that heard in Virginia. Their general appearance with better- 
shaped legs, reminded me very much of the Arab and the people in the 
north of Africa. I have been informed that these people, since the Civil 
War, have become educated and prosperous, and that many of them are 
now sugar planters, and as good citizens they meet their obligations and 
duties fully as well as they are discharged by the whites. 

The banks of the Mississippi have been built up to such a height that 
in some places the bottom of the river seems now above the level of the 
surrounding country. As the river fills in from the mud deposit, it has 
become necessary to build up the levees to prevent the country from 
being for a greater part of the time under water, and uninhabitable. The 
tributaries of the river cover so large an extent of cotmtry that at any 
time there may be a sudden rise of the water in the river to any extent 
under one hundred feet in depth. The banks are constantly caving in on 
one side of the river or the other, as the soil is alluvial, and large trees are 
thus uprooted. These trees float with the current until a shallow part 
of the river is reached, where they ground, become embedded, and cause an 
obstruction from the forming of a sand-bar, which immediately changes 
the direction and depth of the channel. Consequently a large corps of 



Navigation on the Mississippi ^^i 

men under experienced engineers are occupied in keeping every portion 
of the river under constant supervision. The system of late years which 
has been organized and perfected was being practised, but to a less degree, 
at the time of my visit, and I have since been interested in following the 
details. As the depth would be constantly changing if not regulated, 
and as it is necessary to maintain as nearly as possible a uniform depth 
of water in the chaimel, a series of guards are so built as to direct the course 
of the water with such force against any given point that the mud cannot 
be deposited. At some periods the amount of mud held in suspension 
is equal to nearly half the bulk of the water, and the amount of debris 
thus carried for thousands of miles and which is finally deposited in the 
Gulf of Mexico, is beyond all comprehension. Already the Delta pro- 
jects for many miles beyond the natural line of the coast, with the banks 
raised as if on a viaduct. 

As a first-class passenger I had the right of access to all parts of the 
steamboat, a privilege I often availed myself of in the desire to see and 
hear everything I could. I frequently derived much diversion from the 
practice, and often obtained valuable information from most unexpected 
sources. On this trip I frequently visited the quarters of the second- 
class passengers and engaged them in conversation, or rather invited 
them to talk to me on any subject of interest to them. 

Somewhere along the Arkansas side of the river a woman nearly six 
feet in height came aboard, with only a bundle imder her arm. She 
was as angular and as far from being straight as a split hickory fence-rail. 
As soon as she was seated, she set to work, as if she had taken the contract 
to amuse all the other passengers, with a recital of her personal history. 
Hour after hour and as often as she could gain the ear of a new-comer, 
she repeated, as if singing the gamut: "Done had the shakes [ague] for 
twenty years, bin salivated seventeen times, done lost all my teef, my 
five husbands and all der childer done died, and now I is gwine back to 
my Virginia folks to rest!" 

She must have been a connection of an Alabama dame of whom the 
following was stated : From the sudden rise of the Alabama River her 
house was swept from the bank and she was rescued from the roof as it 
was floating down the river. Her story was: "I done lost my sewing- 
machine and all my chickens, my husband and all the children done 
drownded, but thank God I done fetched my yallow dog safe." 

We at length reached home, late in March and in the midst of a 
blizzard such as frequently favored the neighborhood of New York at that 
season. My wife and I were, however, received by a most affectionate 
family gathering, and she at once became one of the family, as if she had 
known every member all her life. 



Chapter XIII 



Began again my service in 1854 as Visiting Physician to the Emigrant Hospital — Took charge 
of the cholera wards in addition to my regular service — The mortality was very great 
as the cases were sent from the city in the last stages of the disease — Many priests and 
nurses died from overwork and from neglect of themselves — On two occasions I found 
on making my visit that all the patients and nurses had died since the day before, and 
yet no one connected with the hospital died who received treatment for the early symp- 
toms, and but one physician lost his life, and he through fear of the disease — A political 
change in the politics of the State deprived me of my position in the hospital — I worked 
hard and succeeded in a short time in building up a good practice — My wife became 
interested in charitable work with my aunt, Mrs. LeRoy, in establishing the House of 
Industry and the Nursery and Child's Hospital— Townsend, "the Sarsaparilla Man," 
exhibited his new house for charity — Description of the house and entertainment — 
Tooth-brush, with a comb and hair-brush chained to each basin in the "wash-room" — 
Mrs. DuBois was the originator of the Nursery and Child's Hospital as well as of the 
annual Charity Ball, over fifty years ago — ^Visit from Dr. J. Marion Sims — How it hap- 
pened I became connected with the Woman's Hospital Association, and afterwards 
became Assistant Surgeon — Spent the siunmer at Tucker's Island near New Rochelle 
where we made some warm friends — Relating to the birth of President Roosevelt — 
Rented a house in 1857 near New Rochelle — Purchased a house in Madison Avenue — 
Death of my mother — My sister married Mr. John N. A. Griswold — Marriage delayed 
on accoiint of my mother's illness — A cruise with Mr. Robert Edgar on his yacht — My 
uncle, Mr. T. A. Emmet, of the party — Fond of playing practical jokes, from which I had 
suffered — An interesting story of how I gained for my uncle the spiritual aid of a clergy- 
man in New London — But he never related his "experience" — During a visit to Newport 
in the summer of 1861 I had occasion to cross to Narragansett Pier — Charmed with the 
climate and bathing — Passed many summers there — Changes which have taken place — 
The bass fishing — I caught the largest fish ever taken on the coast with a rod — The 
mosquitoes have long been famous in certain portions — Cite an instance of death caused 
by them. 



BEGAN again my service as Visiting Physician to the 
Emigrant Refuge Hospital, early in the summer of 
1854. The physician who had been on duty the 
shortest time took charge, according to nile, of any 
emergency ward which had to be opened, and did so 
in addition to his regular work. I thus became 
responsible for a cholera ward, where, during my 
six weeks' service, eight hundred cholera cases were admitted. These 

162 




^ 



Q.M ,J3fnrn3 eifabA SBmoriT 



^P^' 



^^^ 



Chap 



Began agam my service in 1854 as Visiting Physician to the Emigrant Hospital-Took charge 
of the cholera wards in addition to my regular service-The mortality was very great 
as the cases were sent from the city in the last stages of the diseas^Many priests and 
nurses died from overwor'- - ' - - . . - . 

on making my visit tha 
yet no onp connecti'd v. 



I!r:L^^*^E'>""e,M.D. 



""'"-=-"- """tag, ,85, 



■,- at Tuckers lsk^ 

r^" ,; to the birth of 1'; 

^^'' - Purchased "a house u. ... 

DeatJi ui" my mot,i.cr— My sister married Mr. John N. A. Griswold— M 
on account of my mother's illness— A cruise with Mr. Robert Edgar on h 
uncle, Mr. T. A. Emmet, of the party— Fond of playing practical jokes, from wliich I had 
suffered— An interesting story of how I gained for my uncle the spiritual aid of a clergy- 
man m New London— But he never related his "experience"— During a visit to Newport 
m the summer of 1861 I had occasion to cross to Narragansett Pier— Charmed with the 
climate and bathing— Passed many summers there— Changes which have taken place- 
•= fishing— I caught the largest fish ever taken on the coast with a rod— The 
uve long been famous in certain portions— Cite an instance of death caused 




hese 




M\ 



In Charge of the Cholera Wards 163 

were generally in a state of collapse, as the greater portion were picked 
up in the slums of the city. I had a number of assistants, and had but 
little to do with the details, but the responsibihty of my position was a 
fearful one. I spent about four hours a day going from one bed to another, 
aiding the attending ph3^sician, and was present at nearly all the post- 
mortem examinations. On two occasions when a larger number of bad 
cases than usual had been admitted, I found next morning all the pa- 
tients and the nurses had died since my last visit. Yet very few cases 
died in the hospital proper among the nurses or patients, where they 
received proper and prompt treatment at the beginning. The nurses 
employed in the cholera wards were well paid for extra work, so that they 
were overworked and they relied too much on stimulants to keep up 
their strength. It seemed from the frequent changes as if many priests 
must have died, but no record was kept, at least by the hospital authori- 
ties, as to the number who lost their Hves in this special service on Ward's 
Island. My strength was greatly overtaxed and I became so satiirated 
with the poison that I was seldom free while on duty from some of the 
premonitory symptoms, but these were readily kept in check. JMy rest 
was greatly disturbed, as I would be often seized in my sleep with cramps 
in m}^ fingers, toes, and in the calves of my legs. A ph^-sician coming 
after me, who was very apprehensive for his safety, died in a week, 
but he was the only medical man who lost his life in this service. That 
I did not die during my service in the Emigrant Refuge Hospital made 
me think afterwards that God probably preserved my life for some other 
work. 

During the following autumn there was a change in the politics of 
the majority of the voters of the State, and the Whig party came into 
power, with many followers to be rewarded by office. 

The hospital on Ward's Island being a State institution at once suf- 
fered by a change in the mode of administration. We were all turned out 
without thought for the public good, and a perfectly equipped and well- 
working hospital of about four thousand beds, and which had been ftilly 
developed by the untiring devotion to duty of those in charge, was 
wrecked. It was handed over to an irresponsible set of political office- 
holders who were under no adequate supervision, and, in addition to the 
salary we received, they were provided with a house and food for them- 
selves and families at the public expense. 

Other institutions have been erected on the island since for the insane 
and other purposes, but after an interval of over fifty years the portion 
which was under our charge has never been heard of, in connection with 
any original work. 

As soon as I lost my place at the hospital, I at once set about develop- 



i64 Incidents of my Life 

ing my private practice and advanced rapidly, soon having under my 
care some of the most prominent families of the city. 

Within a year after our marriage my wife had became interested in a 
number of charitable works, and gave much of her attention to the House 
of Industry, which my aunt, Mrs. LeRoy, had started, and to the 
Nursery and Child's Hospital, now located on Lexington Avenue. 
The managers of both these charitable undertakings had great difficulty 
at first in getting the public interested. Through the perseverance of 
Mrs. LeRoy and Mrs. DuBois, who originated the Nursery and Child's 
Hospital, many people of means finally became interested. 

About this time there was a great effort made to put "Townsend's 
Sarsaparilla ' ' on the market by every means to be conceived of in the way 
of advertising. Townsend had purchased land on the northwest comer 
of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, now occupied by the Knicker- 
bocker Trust Company Building. On this site he built one of the largest 
private residences which had been erected in the city, having about fifty 
feet frontage, but no one was allowed to see the interior until finished. 
When the house was completed, Townsend, as an advertisement, offered 
to exhibit it for the benefit of the two fashionable charities, and to furnish, 
at his own expense, a supper. 

The exhibition proved a grand success in numbers, and aid to the 
charities, and while the house accommodated several thousand, the people 
were coming all night as fast as they could gain admission. It seemed 
as if all in the city who could procure the price of admission availed 
themselves of the opportunity of seeing the inside of the house, which had 
been previously denied every one but the workmen. 

A hallway, about one-third the width of the house, was the most 
prominent feature, as on this opened a gallery from the bedrooms 
around the four sides to the roof, and each story was entered from the 
stairway through a large door like that of an ordinary dwelling-house, and 
at night these were secured, to "keep out robbers." To the right on 
entering the house was a narrow room, and in a white marble slab were 
six or more stationary basins on each side, with a long looking-glass 
above. Each basin was provided with a comb, hair-brush, and tooth- 
brush, secured by a small silver-plated chain, and I was told some- 
where in the neighborhood there was a barber-room, but I did not see it. 
Evidently Mr. Townsend expected his male guests at least were to as- 
semble here in the mornings as a kind of social gathering, while "washing 
up" for the day! I was unable to get into the large parlor, but was told 
in as many niches the twelve Apostles were painted in heroic size, without 
any other pictures or decoration than the "pesco work," of which Mr. 
Townsend was very proud. Throughout the house this was very pro- 



The '' Sarsaparilla Man's " Residence ^^5 

nounced, and he certainly received the worth of his money in the color- 
ing. I got a peep into the dining-room and in "pesco work" there was 
exhibited to the best of advantage, as in an eating-house, bunches of 
celery, with different birds and fowls, as if hanging up on the wall. The 
only music was a street-organ stationed in what was to be the picture 
gallery on the north side, where Banvard's panorama of the Mississippi 
River was on exhibition all night, with a relay of men to turn the crank 
in turn and "keep things moving. " 

My aunt, Mrs. LeRoy, whom I had taken there, was so overcome 
by the heat and crowd that I had to leave her seated on one of the steps 
of the main stairway while I went off in search of a glass of water for her. 
I went down to the basement to reach the kitchen if possible, as the most 
likely place to get the water. I found the large basement hall as crowded 
as above and I soon found out the cause, when a man, who proved to be 
our host, dressed apparently in all the colors of the spectrum, passed me 
with an empty soap-box in his hand. As soon as he found space for his 
box and could mount it, I heard: "Oh, do stand back and let the folks 
put the victuals on the table! You need n't be afeard, every one will get 
his share. Oh, do stand back!" I then saw the supper-table was 
surrounded by a swarm of those who were going to get their money's 
worth. I soon found a waiter, got a glass of water, and we came home 
after seeing the most extraordinary collection of strange people and 
strange dressing ever collected together. 

This Townsend finally became a bankrupt, and disappeared, but 
for years he kept on the docket a law^suit to which was given every 
publicity, purporting to be an action between old Dr. Townsend and 
young Dr. Townsend, one accusing the other of using mercury or some 
other drug, and the sarsaparilla was sold in eight-sided bottles with the 
likeness of one or the other, and to satisfy the demand the druggist had 
to keep a double supply. Before Townsend failed from building his 
house and not selling one hundred thousand bottles of his sarsaparilla 
to pay for it, he was prosperous and built the brown-stone houses on 
the east side of Madison Avenue between Thirty-second and Thirty- 
third Streets, with a five-sided projection from each story, showing the 
shape of half of one of his sarsaparilla bottles. Of these buildings there 
are now not more than two left. 

To aid the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Mrs. DuBois got up the 
annual Charity Ball, which for years was one of the prominent social 
features of the year. I was present at the first one, given over fifty 
years ago, in the old Academy of Music, comer of Irving Place and Four- 
teenth Street, and for years it was always noted as an assembly of the 
most prominent persons in the country. In fact, it was as exclusive as a 



i66 Incidents of my Life 

ball given in a private house, and this feature was maintained for j^ears 
by "Old Brown," the sexton of Grace Church. Brown was employed 
at every notable entertainment, private or public, and had a personal 
acquaintance with every one who could make any pretence to being 
within the social circle of New York society. Gradually fashion deserted 
the Charity Balls, but they have been kept up with equal spirit and suc- 
cess for charitable purposes, by those who make little pretence to being 
within the exclusive "four hundred," but the function has been no less 
enjoyable to them. 

In the early spring of 1855, 1 was engaged late one night with my case- 
book in tabulating all the features of each typhus-fever case I had 
treated at Ward's Island, so as to obtain as it were the natural history of 
the disease. It had been snowing all day and the quiet was conducive 
to continued work, when I was startled by a loud rap on my window. 
On opening the door I admitted Dr. Marion Sims, whom I had met be- 
fore, but I did not recognize him until he introduced himself. He 
stated that his car had gotten off the track almost opposite my house, and 
seeing my light burning he had come in to warm himself, as he had be- 
come chilled from standing so long outside. After he had revived, 
seeing my table covered with papers, he asked what work I was at. On 
explaining the system and what I expected to accomplish, he suddenly 
said: "Well, doctor, you are just the man I am looking for, and if you 
\\ill come up to the hospital to-morrow morning at nine o'clock I will 
show you something you have never seen before, I have been all the 
evening engaged with the board of governors in organizing a new hospital, 
and while I can have you to assist me, I cannot give 3^ou at present any 
official position, as the by-laws require my assistant should be a woman. " 
I was punctual next morning and saw in the Woman's Hospital Associa- 
tion building something which I had never seen before. I saw the repair 
of an injury, resulting from parturition, which had become of frequent 
occurrence and incurable imtil Dr. Sims had invented certain instruments 
and had resorted to the use of fine silver wire instead of silk. 

A building on the present site of 93 Madison Avenue, and which after- 
ward formed part of my private hospital, was selected, to enable Dr. 
Sims to demonstrate his method. 

I did not realize that it was to be part of my life's mission to render this 
loathsome and almost incurable injury not only curable, but that I was 
to be the means of restoring to perfect health nearly six hundred women 
thus afflicted, and finally to discover the cause and thereby revolutionize 
the obstetrical practice of the world, so that now the occurrence of this 
injury is almost tmknovm. 

After my long hospital service it was eas}^ for me to write up a history 



Women's Hospital Association 167 

of all the cases and to make drawings to illustrate, when it was necessary, 
the condition of each, and thus to relieve Dr. Sims of all details in rela- 
tion to the medical administration. The doctor was always genial to me 
and I was acquiring information rapidly by looking on, but unfortunately 
I had been impressed from early life with the necessity of punctuality, 
while Dr. Sims seemed to have but little appreciation as to the value of 
time. Moreover, as I had no right to operate, or to do an3rthing towards 
treating a patient until specially directed by Dr. Sims to do so, the loss 
of time to which I was subjected became a serious matter. About two 
months after I had begun to visit the hospital, one of my family became 
ill and this necessitated the removal to the country for the summer. 
After coming to town by appointment to meet Dr. Sims and to assist him, 
for ten consecutive days, at an average cost of three dollars a day, which 
I could not afford in addition to my other expenses, and waiting the 
whole afternoon without seeing him, I absented myself for nearly three 
months. I then received a communication from the secretary of the 
Board of Lady Managers stating: "It seems as if nothing has been 
done in the hospital since you left," and stating, if I would return, the 
position of Assistant Surgeon and five hundred dollars a year was offered 
me. I gladly accepted the position, but declined the salary, as I knew 
that the hospital needed it more than I did, although it would have been 
a material aid to me. On my return. Dr. Sims would appoint two o'clock 
in the afternoon to operate, and I had to wait several hours before I 
could be certain that he would not come, and on my next visit I would, 
learn that he had come in and had already operated at seven o'clock the 
following morning. I finally stated to him that in his absence, as Assist- 
ant Surgeon I was responsible', and that as I had to work hard for my living 
I could not afford to lose the time I had been doing. I said I had there- 
fore made up my mind for the future to wait for him ten minutes, and 
if I did not hear from him, I should proceed to operate. He kindly 
slapped me on the shoulder and said: "Old Emmet, don't worry!" 
After I had regularly operated for a while, an understanding was estab- 
lished between us, by being punctual when he wished to operate on any 
special case, and I was left afterward to do at least two-thirds of the 
operating and to attend to all the other details. ^ 

' Some years after, on my way to Montgomery, Alabama, where my wife was on a visit, 
I landed from a steamer at Charleston, S. C. My trunk had been mislaid and was only found 
in time to be placed on board as the train was moving off. I threw myself in a seat, heated 
and irritable, when a man alongside addressed me by asking, "When did you leave New York?" 
I answered: "On Saturday, but what is that to you, sir?" He apologized for speaking and 
said: "I am a detective from New York, and have seen you for the past five or six years pass 
the corner of Twenty- third Street and Fourth Avenue every day about a quarter to two." 
I was then on my way to the hospital, to arrive at two o'clock, and he was on his way to 
business at the same hour. Both being punctual, we passed each other on the corner, and 



i68 Incidents of my Life 

The Managers of the Woman's Hospital Association resolved to 
close the institution during the summer months of 1856. As several 
branches of my family resided at New Rochelle and several families 
imder my professional care were also to pass the summer there, I decided 
to do likewise. 

I finally secured quarters on Tucker's Island, now known as Premium 
Point and the country residence of Mr, OHver Iselin. Mr. Theodore 
Roosevelt, an old friend, and wife, with a family of two small children, 
were also to spend the summer there. One of the youngsters, a boy, be- 
came the President of the United States, and he has claimed I brought 
him into the world. It is quite possible I did so, as their family physician 
was then well advanced in life and I had frequently to take his place, but 
I can not now recall the circtunstance. I have, however, a very distinct 
recollection of my care and responsibilitj?- during the period he was teeth- 
ing, for he was a very deHcate child and his life was saved only by the 
most careful watching. He is indebted indirectly to me for being now a 
strong and healthy man, as I was instrumental somewhat in having his 
father send him as a growing boy on to a ranch out West, although he 
had not been under my charge for some years. The brother of Mrs. 
Roosevelt was also an old friend, and I had long known his mother's 
family. He was Capt. James D. Bulloch of Georgia, and of the U. So 
Navy until the Civil War, when he resigned and became the Naval 
Representative of the Confederate States in Europe. His service proved 
most efficient as through his agency were fitted out the Alabama and 
other Confederate privateers. Three of Mr. Roosevelt's brothers with 
their wives passed the summer at Tucker's Island, and we were all young 
married people passing together a most delightful season. 

In the spring af 1857, my wife being in impaired health and with a 
child onl}^ a few months old, I rented for several years a cottage, situated 
on the Pelham road near New Rochelle. It was then in a most dilapi- 
dated condition; consequently the rent was a nominal one, but I had 
made up my mind as to what I could do with it. On my first visit to 
take possession I drove a cow out of the house and from the room which 
was to be our parlor. Mr. Robert Edgar, who had married my cousin, a 
daughter of Mr. Wm. H. LeRoy, and another cousin, Mr. Wm. J. 
Emmet, had their residences quite near, on the island now belonging to 
the N. Y. Athletic Club. Mr. Edgar and I had many tastes in common, 
and he assisted me to get the house in order. We built the front piazza, 

he being trained to observe people recollected my face, while I, with my mind as active 
in another line, had not noticed his. Some Irish writer has stated: "All Irishmen consider 
punctuality the thief of time. " I cite this instance as certainly being an exception to the rule, 
or my American nativity has already changed my nature in this respect. 



od8i ,J9mrn3 aibbA eEmorlT .eiM bns .iQ 




can 
him 



Incident 



As seven.! 
-^ a^xw --vr-eral families 
ummer there, I decided 

no wn as Premium 
- ■ ui. Mr. Theodore 

:th a family '»f two small children, 
^''" ' - ■ One of the youngsters, a boy, be- 
i the United States, and he has claimed I brought 
It is quite possible I did so, as their family ph" -• - 
was then weU advanced in life and I had frequently to take his pi: ' 
I can not v,o^\• recall thr rnrcr ., .fgru p. I have, however, a ver> 

y during the period he wa 



Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet, i860 



.^ J.: -i..un(pf. i-iis srr- . , proved 

were fitted out the Alibama and 

i .uc-.- of Mr. Roosevelt's brothers with 

ler at Tucker's Island, and we were all youni; 

■ ^ J- -< '-^■s^'ther a most delightful season. 

In the spring af 1857, my wife being in impaired health and with a 

child '-^r;'i.' a f^T- r>^^.^< U- ,-,1.-1 T _„„^.,J f-^ .____ 1 . 

or; ! 

dated 

made 




M- 





i 



i 



Purchased House on Madison Avenue 169 

which has stood to the present day ; we partially relaid some of the floors 
and with a few new shingles and a good supply of paint skins we put the 
roof in order. He painted all the woodwork, while I covered the walls 
of every room with a cheap, but pretty, paper. We cut the grass and 
laid out the needed walks, got a few pots of flowers from town, and with 
the aid of a man we started a respectable kitchen garden. With some 
bed-ticking I made an awning for the piazza and all the windows, and at a 
cost of a little less than two hundred dollars we turned out as pretty 
a little box as could be pictured. 

In the autumn of 1857 I purchased one of the four English basement 
houses, on Madison Avenue, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth 
Streets. I built a greenhouse in addition for my mother, over a 
portion of the back yard, and opening into the dining-room. She 
had brought a number of her plants from Virginia, — many were 
older than I, — and she had managed to keep them about her in good 
condition. She considered the collection as one of great value, and 
I recollect the blooming of a fine specimen of the Century plant 
which a number of persons called to see. The remembrance of my 
mother's happiness and full enjoyment which she derived from this 
greenhouse for several years previous to her death gave me great 
satisfaction. From her enthusiastic love of these plants she always 
insisted upon attending herself to all the details in relation to their 
care. Early in the winter of 1859 she contracted an attack of pneumonia 
from which she died January, 1859. Her funeral took place at St. 
Mark's Church, Ninth Street and Second Avenue, and her remains were 
deposited in my uncle's vault in the Second Street Marble Cemetery. 
Several years after, on selling the house, I presented the Central Park 
Commission with the whole collection of plants, and at the present time 
it doubtless forms a portion of those in the Botanical Gardens of Greater 
New York, 

My sister was engaged to be married to Mr. John N. A. Griswold. 
The wedding was delayed on account of the condition of her mother's 
health, but took place quietly on the following February 29th, at St. 
Mark's Church. 

I recall an interesting circumstance in relation to this portion of Madi- 
son Avenue between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Streets. During a 
period of twelve months, including, I think, a portion of 1867-68, there 
were born thirteen children in nine houses. A birth at least in every house 
on the block, the other lots being covered by two churches and my private 
hospital. Three women bore seven children; and six others, one each. 
The addition to the population rated: one premature birth, five full-term 
singly, triplets, and two sets of twins. Four young doctors were 



I70 Incidents of my Life 

the fathers of one premature, one at full time, triplets, and twins. 
During this period I had a patient in my private hospital suffering from 
epithelioma, a form of cancer from injury, due to being a grandmother 
at thirty-four. Both she and her daughter had given birth to a child 
between sixteen and seventeen years of age. A young lady friend 
of mine, recently married, was urged to take the house next above me, 
which was occupied after by Dr. Fordyce Barker. Her answer was: 
"Nothing could induce me to live in such a neighborhood. " 

In September, 1859, 1 went on a cruise with Mr. Robert Edgar in the 
Widgeon, a large schooner yacht, owned by himself and his two brothers, 
William and Newbold. The party in addition consisted of my uncle, Mr. 
Thomas A. Emmet, then Master in Chancery for the City of New York, 
and two other gentlemen. We had a delightful run through the Vine- 
yard Sound and to the Cape. On our return we stopped over a day at 
New London. We went ashore in the afternoon and passed a church 
where a revival was being conducted, and went in expecting to hear a 
noted preacher. My uncle was very fond of playing practical jokes, 
and on several occasions just before he had gotten the best of me. In 
consequence of the respect due him I was somewhat handicapped in 
not having full swing. The afternoon was very warm, and we had tired 
out the old gentleman so much by walking him around, that he soon 
rested his head on the top of the pew before him and dropped off into 
a doze, notwithstanding the singing and shouting going on around him. 
There was a clergyman praying and going about the church exhorting 
sinners to repentance and to come up and take a seat on the "anxious 
bench." As he passed me I beckoned to him and said, "There is an 
elderly gentleman three or four benches behind me who is a very worthy 
soul, well worth your prayers, and it would be well for you to speak to him 
and offer them to him." On looking back he seemed suspicious, and 
said, "He evidently takes no interest in my work as he has gone to 
sleep!" I answered, as if my feelings were hurt from undue suspicion: 
"No, you are entirely mistaken ; it is a peculiarity of his always to put 
his head down in that manner when he is in the deepest meditation and 
prayer. I have not spoken to him, but seeing him in that position has 
prompted me to call your attention to him, and for the 'awakening' 
which has been so long delayed with him." 

When he started for my uncle my steps were directed to the door, 
and as the clergyman affectionately put his arms around my uncle's 
neck and patted him on the shoulder in the most encouraging manner, 
my uncle started up in his surprise and I heard him exclaim, "Bless my 
soul!" This no doubt encouraged the clergyman to renewed efforts 
and to take him in hand, but I could not honestly see there was any 



Practical Joke in Church 171 

inducement to encourage me to remain longer, from any motive of 
curiosity. 

The others seeing my hasty retreat, without knowing the cause, for it 
might have been supposed by a stranger seeing my haste, that I had 
picked some one's pocket, got out as quickly as possible. I at once 
removed all suspicion, if there had existed one, by describing the situa- 
tion, and by assuring them that I had not acted from any criminal motive. 
We made a very disorderly retreat to the boat, in consequence of our 
bursts of laughter, and waited for my imcle's arrival. We were very 
grave when he reached the boat with all his hackles awry. But I di- 
verted suspicion at once by assuming the air of injured innocence in 
stating that we did not know what had happened to him. He knew he 
had his head down and supposed we had passed out without seeing him, 
and had been looking for him in the hot sun. He never suspected that 
we knew anything about "his experience," and if the clergyman suc- 
ceeded in getting him to give it to those present at the meeting, we were 
none the wiser, as he never made the slightest reference to what had 
happened to him. 

I spent the summer of 1861 at Newport, R. I., and having to cross 
in a sailboat to see a patient below Narragansett Pier near the lighthouse, 
was struck with the dry and pure air of that neighborhood, something 
remarkable on the seashore. At that time there could be found scarcely 
a bush below Narrow River large enough to shelter a rabbit. As there 
was an English or French fleet anchored off Newport harbor during the 
whole Revolution, and more or less of an American army on the land 
side to the west of Kingston, all the timber was cut off down to Point 
Judith. This left the soil open to the action of the sun, and as the pre- 
vailing wind during the summer was from the southwest, by passing 
over seven miles of sandy soil the moisture was evaporated before it 
reached the Pier. For years this was the only spot on the coast where a 
rheumatic person, or one with bronchial trouble, could remain in safety. 
To-day the climate is quite as damp a one as at Newport, and there is 
about the same amount of fog, while forty or fifty years ago fog in 
Narragansett, unless in stormy weather, was unknown during the summer 
months; and the same thing could be said of the mosquitoes. This 
change has all been brought about by the extensive planting of trees, 
with such an extent of undergrowth as now exists. 

While we are noticing the changes at the Pier, I might place on record 
my experience in relation to the fishing. My poor wife was made a 
martyr from being roused every night by an alarm-clock, when I would 
get up and, with something to eat, be off to the rocks, ready at daylight 
to try my luck for the striped bass. When I first went to Narragansett, 



172 Incidents of my Life 

on almost any day along the rocks, I could catch a school bass weighing 
under ten pounds, and from a boat with a drop line the fishing was good 
with the blackfish large and numerous. The large striped bass, how- 
ever, were not caught unless the water was stirred up by a recent storm. 
Then, if a supply of fresh menhaden or bony fish could be obtained, 
I seldom failed to catch one or more fish under thirty or forty pounds. 
But the natives, with their dragnets, soon drove these fish away, so that 
it is rarely now that a bass of any size is taken with a rod along the coast. 
As the fish became scarce and the number of fishermen increased from the 
number of visitors, it was often difficult to get a position, and with the 
wind off the coast to aid me in casting. I have slept many a night 
on the rocks to hold the position I wished for the next day's fishing. 
One night, I think during the summer of 1867, I slept on the rocks at 
the end of the beach near the mouth of Narrow River and it rained hard 
for the greater portion of the night. From daylight, about four o'clock, 
I fished all day without having had a strike, and during the afternoon 
had changed to light tackle for school bass, but without any better suc- 
cess. There were four or five persons with me, of whom Dr. John G. 
Perry, then practising in New York and one of my assistants, and Mr. 
William C. Pennington of Baltimore, are now the only survivors. About 
seven o'clock all became anxious to get back in time for dinner; I begged 
to have another cast for good luck, and after putting on half of a men- 
haden for a fresh bait, I made my cast at a good distance. The bait 
was seized as it struck the water by some monster, which went directly 
out to sea and so rapidly that in a minute or two nearly the whole of my 
line of two hundred yards was off the reel. Fortunately the fish turned 
but came as rapidly back to the rock so that I had great difficulty in 
reeling in the slack fast enough to leave no free line. It came up within 
ten feet of me and I saw that I had hooked an unusually large striped 
bass. It was as quick as a trout in its action, and would suddenly jump 
five or six feet in the air and try to shake the hook out of its mouth. 
As my leader was but a double catgut snell I could do nothing more 
than give him no free line, and play him until he was drowned. In 
about forty minutes I killed him, and with tackle a ten-pound fish could 
have broken as easily as a cobweb if the strain had been put upon it. I 
had fortunately hooked him in the angle of the jaw, and the weight of 
the line itself was sufficient to keep his mouth open and drown him. 

This fish was six feet and a half in length, and on the following morn- 
ing it weighed seventy-nine pounds, having "dried out" at least four 
pounds in that time. I gave it to the fisherman who was with me, and 
he sold it to the Metropolitan Hotel in New York. It was boiled whole 
and served on a board like a "plank" shad, as no dish could hold it. 



Bitten to Death by Mosquitoes 173 

This was the largest striped bass, so far as I have been able to ascer- 
tain, ever taken with a rod off the Narragansett coast and the more 
remarkable to have been saved with such light tackle. 

Along the back waters of the Narrow River, up to Tower Hill, has 
always been noted for the size and number of the mosquitoes to be found 
there, and if the Jersey mosquitoes could be made to realize the truth, 
they would cease to exact any further claim in that region as to credit for 
size and nipping qualities. In this connection I might mention a curious 
incident which to me, as a Southern man was one of great interest when I 
first read the account. The old Boston turnpike to New York ran 
along the crest of Tower Hill until after the Revolution, and where 
the former Tower Hill House now stands, was then the site of a large 
tavern where the stage coaches always stopped for changing horses and 
for meals served the travellers. The owner had a large farm about him 
and owned a number of negroes. There was one negro who kept running 
away all the time, until at last he caught him and taking him down to 
the salt water swamp, to the east of Tower Hill, he drove four stakes into 
the ground and tied this negro naked, hand and foot, as if on a St. 
Andrew's cross. The next morning the negro was found dead, having 
been killed by the mosquitoes. I cannot recall the exact date, but in 
a single paper taken from a volume of The New Jersey Gazette for 1777, 
which I once owned, and, as a separate illustration, in some volume 
bound up in the "Emmet Collection " at the Lenox Library, will be found 
a lengthy and detailed account of the action of the Grand Jury and of 
the people in the Narragansett country. After the inquest this man 
was driven out of the country by the people and his property was con- 
fiscated, or he lost it from being unable to look after it. 



Chapter XIV 



Arranged to spend my first summer at Narragansett Pier — Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., 
attempted to do the same — His experience — A tendency shown by those living on the 
seashore to disregard their word and to be unreliable — I had a house on the shore for 
seventeen years — Kept open house for the young people — Fancy balls and charades 
were_ always unusually good at the Pier — Miss Jane Stuart, of Newport and a daughter 
of Gilbert Stuart the artist, aided me in getting up a costume for one of the most noted 
of the balls given at the Massasoit House — I appeared as the "Unprotected Female," 
and I was considered a success — Reference to Mr. Allan McLane — "Aunt Didy, " Mrs. 
Emmet's sister, who kept house for us — The method by which she was induced to have 
peach ice-cream oftener — Dance of "all hands round" by the young people and strength- 
ened by the continued singing of "Old Dog Tray, ever faithful" — The point yielded 
through fear of being fitted for a lunatic asylum — Beginning of the Civil War — Doctrine 
of State Rights, Secession and Slavery, considered — The origin of "State Rights" — 
Virginia having withdrawn from the Union I considered she had a claim to my services — 
Went South as soon as Mr. Lincoln called out the troops April 19, 1861 — Difficulties 
on the way — Arrested in Lynchburg — Finally reached Montgomery, Alabama — Advised 
by Mr. Davis and other members of the Confederate Government to return to my family 
in New York — Delays and difficulties on my return — The Mammoth Cave in Kentucky — 
What I saw there — Finally reached home — Began again the practice of my profession — 
Why I was never drafted for the army — By advice I sent a substitute — The result — 
The treatment received as a Democrat — The draft — How it was conducted — Everything 
done to exasperate the Irish people — They were forced to the draft riot — Action taken 
by Archbishop Hughes, who had just returned from a secret mission for the Government 
to Europe — What he accomplished — On the command of the Archbishop, and his pledge 
obtained from the Government, the Irish people remained indoors after the second day — 
The city became filled at once with thieves and disreputable people from every part of 
the country, and every effort was made to bum the city — My position an anxious one, 
with my family and hospital filled with patients, for whom I found it difiicult to provide 
food — My difiiculties in voting for Gen. McClellan at the Presidential election — Through 
the aid of a wife of one of the officials in Washington I obtained not only protection, 
but much assistance in being able to help many of the Confederate prisoners — Fort 
Delaware not a model prison — And but few of the others were any better — The Govern- 
ment was robbed — Condition at Andersonville — Knew Wirz — His death was a political 
murder — Dr. Sims went abroad to practise — The managers of the hospital contem- 
plated closing it in consequence — I was finally allowed to continue my work on "proba- 
tion, " notwithstanding I had done most of the work for several years and had full charge 
for eighteen months, during Dr. Sims's absence. 




with a nurse. 



N consequence of appreciating the cHmate and bathing 
at Narragansett Pier, I became acquainted in i36i 
with Captain Rodman, who at one time commanded 
a sloop which traded with Block Island. I lent 
him the money to put another story and to make 
other enlargements to his house, so that the next 
summer I took to his house a number of patients 
This became afterward the Revere House, and was 
174 



*'Open House" at Narragansett 175 

moved down to the coast from near the Presbyterian Church. For 
the past fifty years some one of the family has visited the Pier nearly 
every y-ear. I was the first one to start the place as a summer resort 
and yet have never owned any property there, nor have I been a penny 
the better off for my interest in the place. I mentioned my plans to my 
friend, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, on my return to the city, and as he 
wished me to take care of his children, he went to the Pier to make the 
necessary arrangements for the summer. On his return he detailed 
to me the following amusing account of his experience. 

On inquiry as to the best man for his purpose, he was referred 
to Mr. " Smith " by name, we will say, as the original is still living. After 
talking over the matter, he made the most amicable arrangement. He 
then stated to Mr. "Smith" how pleased he was, but being a business 
man he would reduce their agreement to writing and after both had signed 
there could be no misunderstanding. This was done, and as "Smith" 
was about to attach his signature, his "better half" appeared, and 
seizing him by the arm, in a most tragic manner said: "You old fool, you 
are not going to sign that thing, are you? Don't you know if you sign 
it you will have to do what you said you would?" Necessarily, Mr. 
Roosevelt made no further attempt to become a sojourner at Narragan- 
sett Pier. 

It has often been a source of thought to me as to what it was in the 
salt air and the surroundings on the seacoast to make so many people 
lie. It must be the experience of every one as to how little dependence 
can be placed on the word of the average boarding-house keeper, especially 
if she be a woman, or on any renter of row- and sail-boats, fishermen and 
others, who pass their lives without change on the seacoast ! This has 
been my experience at home and abroad as to the want of truthfulness 
among these people. 

For seventeen years I rented a house on the present site of the Casino, 
where I kept open house for the young people. I had a family of fourteen 
persons during the greater part of the time, and we often had twenty 
persons in the house at every meal. There was an extra supply of 
mattresses and blankets kept in the garret, and so long as a place could 
be found on the parlor floor there was still room for another, and up- 
stairs there was some mysterious way of disposing of the young women. 
There was something going on all the time to keep up the fun and frolic. 
The charades were always good, and I have seen several impromptu 
fancy balls gotten up at Narragansett Pier, where the costumes could 
have been more expensive, but never more clever, nor could the individual 
characters have been better sustained. The last one in which I recollect 
having taken part was given at the Massasoit twenty -five years or more 



176 Incidents of my Life 

ago, and I decided to go as an "Unprotected Female." Taking a 
sailboat I went to Newport to see an old friend, Miss Jane Stuart, a 
daughter of Gilbert Stuart, the pro trait painter, and the last of her 
family. Her grandfather settled above Narragansett at the head of 
Narrow River, where her father was bom. Miss Stuart entered with 
great interest into supplying my wants, and she turned out a brown 
silk dress and a Leghorn straw bonnet her mother had worn in the early 
part of the last century, with a pair of embroidered linen mittens, which 
were to take the place of dress sleeves, which had only a puff at the top 
stuffed with hair, and from her studio she produced a wig. She moved 
the buttons or hooks and eyes so that the lower part of the body of the 
dress could be secured around my waist, and to cover the uncovered gap 
between my shoulders she got out a small old red Canton shawl, the ends 
of which were to be crossed on my breast and tucked under the belt. 
She found in the garret a trunk about three feet long and log-shaped, 
covered with a spotted red and white horse skin and ornamented with 
large brass nails. It was the same stjde of trunk I recollect seeing as a 
child, which my mother had taken with her on her bridal trip, holding a 
little more than an extra large dress-suit case of the present day, for 
the ladies' dresses of the period did not take up much space, as they were 
cut on a sufficiently scant pattern to "cling to the person. " 

I found in the garret an extra large blue cotton umbrella, v/hich had 
belonged to her father, heavily mounted with brass, and when rolled up 
was very baggy in the middle. • Then with a bird cage I borrowed, and a 
dozen or more paper packages of all sizes, and with a thick green veil I 
purchased to hide my mustache and my identity, my "get-up" was 
complete. 

I was supposed to be travelling, and to avoid being left behind I was 
in constant quest of information as to the time when the two-o'clock 
train would start, and as it was xmsafe evidently to trust to the informa- 
tion of any single person, I endeavored to obtain what I could from every 
one. Necessarily I had to get persons to hold my bundles, and naturally 
I broke up every tete-a-tete in sight, and managed to worry every one 
I could, in my nervous efforts to leave nothing undone which might aid 
me in reaching my imaginary destination. I think I prevented every- 
thing like stagnation taking place in my neighborhood, and "I had a 
most enjoyable evening." I can recall those who took part and with 
so much spirit — nearly all have long since joined the majority, but no one 
showed more interest than my old friend Mr. Allan McLane. 

My wife's sister, "Aunt Didy, " as all called her, was a good soul and 
every one loved her. She used to keep the house for us and showed more 
skill, comparatively, in managing the commissariat in the absence of 



Miss Duncan and Peach Ice-Cream 177 

market facilities, than a financier would have to exert in Wall Street. 
The only manner by which she could cater for us was to take her seat 
on the end of the piazza nearest the road, and capture everything passing 
in the way of food. Peach ice-cream was a great favorite with the young 
people, and they had it when in season nearly every day. But some- 
times the consensus was to have it oftener, and when it was too late in 
the day to find the material without a forage. Often being tired out 
with arranging for the day. Miss Duncan, naturally, was not enthusiastic 
on the subject of peach ice-cream, and especially when in her favorite 
rocking-chair, and when she might wish to take a nap or recite her rosary. 

For some reason imknown to me, Miss Dtincan at times was no 
longer enthusiastic over the tune of "Old Dog Tray, " and this is a reason- 
able supposition for any one to hold, since she was never heard to hum or 
whistle the air when alone ! Whenever this lack of interest was detected 
or imagined to exist, about eight or ten of the young people would join 
hands around Miss Duncan, and especially when there seemed to be on 
her part a lack of avidity in reference to peach ice-cream. Before enter- 
ing into the most interesting feature of the occasion and the one least so to 
Miss Duncan, some attempt at negotiations might be made, but then, as if 
prompted by the evil one, or by some one else not interested in the preser- 
vation of her sanity, she would be prompted to shut her eyes to the con- 
sequences. They would then begin to sing "Old Dog Tray, ever faith- 
ful," etc., at the top of their voices, going round and round, first one way 
and then the other, back and forth, and widening the circle and then con- 
tracting it, until the monotony of the procedure was enough to turn her 
head, at least if she had vanitj'- enough to suppose that it all was intended 
as a special compliment. She would hold out as long as she could, but 
there is a limit to human endurance, so that at last, when in a condition 
almost fitted for a hinatic asylum, she would yield. The compromise 
would rest on the youngsters getting the material from the neighborhood 
somewhere, and for some hours all hands would thus be kept employed 
and quiet. 

We must now retrace our steps for a few years, as I have not been able 
to continue the narrative in close chronological order. 

I had been closely attending to my business and seeking to obtain a 
support for my increasing family, and had given little heed to the political 
storm which was gathering over the country. Suddenly I was forced 
to realize that we were in the throes of a revolution and that no longer 
was a compromise possible, as I had been hoping would be the final settle- 
ment of our political difficulties. 

It was not that I had failed to take any special interest in the political 
condition of the country, for I was keenly alive to it, but from knowing 



178 Incidents of my Life 



what the consequence might be in case of a civil war I was misleading 
myself by hoping against hope. Any change at that time meant so 
much to me that the incentive was all the greater, before any change, 
to avail myself of the experience I was then gaining in a new field of study 
at the Woman's Hospital. My instinct was already beginning to impress 
me with the belief that, under favorable circumstances, this special 
work might be closely associated with my future success. The unex- 
pected issue of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation on April 19, 1861, calling 
out the troops for three months' service, roused me at once to action. I 
now realized that we stood on the brink of a vortex, the result of which 
was beyond the foresight of all, and that the time had come when every 
man in the country was called upon to act. A civil war had begun, 
I will not term the movement a rebellion. The use of the term denotes 
ignorance of the formation of the United States of America. When the 
thirteen colonies were acknowledged free and independent by the British 
Government after the Revolution, each was separately recognized as a 
distinct country. 

Thirteen sovereign States leagued and formed the Federation, which 
existed until it became necessary, in 1787, for a more concentrated form 
of administration, in the management of the affairs relating to all the 
States in common, and the Constitution was formed. But only after 
much difficulty and many compromises did these States agree to yield 
certain individual powers for the common good, in the formation of the 
Constitution, which was but a Power of Attorney to be intrusted to an 
Administration. Each State, however, as a party to the compact, 
reserved to itself all and every other power not designated. It never 
was intended by the parties forming the Constitution that A United 
States Government, nor more than an Executi"\^e, should have any existence 
within the United States, or within three miles of the coast. Beyond this 
distance and abroad the world over, the power of the Administration, as the 
United States Government, came into being to protect the rights of ever}'- 
citizen of either and all of the thirteen States, and this is the only instance 
or provision where the Administration is empowered to come in connection 
with any individual. The government of the people was reserved 
by the States and each one managed its own internal affairs, within its 
recognized limits. The Administration at Washington, except in its 
foreign relations, was never considered to possess any of the attributes 
of a Government before the Civil War, and was only termed the Adminis- 
tration. For a Government al>A-ays has the right to exercise a voluntary 
and discretionary power, which the Administration, or now called the 
United States Government, could never legally exercise. Each power 
delegated to the Administration was distinctly designated and the extent 



Outbreak of the Civil War 179 

defined without discretionary power, and the Supreme Court was alone 
empowered by the Constitution to judge as to what was constitutional. 
This is the true history of the formation of the Constitution of the United 
States. 

The United States Administration exists to-day as a full-fledged 
Government, with almost unlimited power, gained by usurpation in every 
branch of the Executive and at first as a claimed necessity during the 
Civil War. The anomalous condition of centralization of usurped power 
exists in the Executive dominating legislation and as the leader of a party. 
Thus constituting the factor a Ruler, with more power, as President of 
the United States, than the Executive head of any other supposed 
constitutional form of government ever dared exercise. Yet the Constitu- 
tion of the United States is supposed still to exist in all its original integrity ! 

The conflict between States all having equal rights and power can- 
not, therefore, be designated a rebellion. It was a civil war, and only 
a question of time, we can now see, as to the beginning of a conflict, which 
could alone finally settle certain conditions existing almost from the 
beginning of the country. 

No, one to-day can understand the influence exerted at the beginning 
of the Civil War by the doctrine of State Rights, and especially among 
all of Southern birth. On my mature judgment I was opposed to 
breaking up the Union, even as a last resort, and that point had not been 
reached, for I knew the Southern leaders held the advantage throughout 
the country from a political standpoint, as the Democrats were greatly 
in the majority until they became divided among themselves on the 
question of slavery, but the war was inevitable. 

The South in the abstract, I believed, was right as to the provocation 
calling for a separation, but before that point had been reached I believe 
the South should have claimed the right to the flag and the Constitution 
to save the Union, as the law was with the South, while a large minority 
at the North were the original disunionists. 

The claimed right of secession had its origin in Massachusetts, and 
it must always be an inherent right of the people, but one always to be 
held in check bj^^ expediency. After all, the only bond of union, when 
divested of sentiment, is that of interest, which necessitates the exercise 
of mutual concession. 

The claim of State Rights also had its origin in New England, but 
was afterward more fully developed in the Southern States, but this was 
entirely distinct and had no necessary connection with the right of seces- 
sion. ^ Now, at the end of half a century, it seems, if viewed from the 

' I have had occasion to investigate this question of late and the following may be of 
interest to the reader (taken from my work, Ireland under English Rule, Second Edition, 



i8o Incidents of my Life 

standpoint of either section, that it was the inscrutable will of Almighty 
God to do away with that frightful political incubus, slavery, and finally 
to unite the people in all sections of the country, to a degree which could 
never have been accomplished otherwise. As a Southern man, I detested 
Mr. Lincoln, but he became finally, in my estimation, one of the greatest 
and purest of patriots, and he accomplished, for the future welfare of the 
coimtry, more than any other individual ever did with the exception of 
Washington. 

At the breakfast-table on April i8, i86i, I read Mr, Lincoln's pro- 
clamation and immediately decided as \''irginia, my native State, had 
seceded, to follow her guidance and destiny, although I had no political 
sympathy with the movement. I thus followed the course of General 
Robert Lee and many thousand others, in response to an influence the 
existence of which can not be appreciated to-day. 

A steamer was to sail for Charleston, South Carolina, at four o'clock. 
I engaged my passage, and while on my way to the bank to draw some 
money, I was obliged to stand on the opposite side of the street until the 
Ninth Massachusetts, an Irish regiment, and the first to volunteer, had 
passed on its way to the front. 

The steamer was seized by the Government as it was casting off, 
and I had just time to catch a train going south from Jersey Cit5^ 
and it was the last through train until after the war. 

We passed through Baltimore at daylight on April 19th, the anniver- 
sary of the battle of Lexington, where the streets were filled with people 
determined to arrest the progress of the expected Massachusetts regi- 
ment, which had been detained in Philadelphia on account of the threat- 
ened demonstration. At Ljmchbiirg, Va., I was arrested and called 
on to identify myself, after showing me a New York paper of the evening 
before where one of my relatives of the same name had subscribed five 
himdred dollars for fitting out the Seventh Regiment, Fortunately I 
was able to find among the physicians several to whom I was personally 

Vol. II., page 240): "After studying the many peculiarities of the Irish people, the writer has 
become impressed with the belief that, among other characteristics developed in this country 
from the influence of the early Irish settlers, we owe to them the origin of the claim of 'State 
Rights,' once so prominent a political factor. The Celtic Catholic Irish, from their long 
clannish surroundings, were the only people who could have applied this claim, as there is 
nothing in connection with the English, Scotch, or any other European people settling in this 
country, which would have given any foundation for it. The doctrine of 'State Rights' 
is said to have had its origin in Massachusetts, and became more developed in the Southern 
States, where the prominent advocates were certainly of Irish origin. This tenet, now con- 
sidered a political heresy, but one which will always exist, certainly flourished in sections of 
the country known to have been settled chiefly by Celtic Irish. The western part of Massa- 
chusetts, as well as New Hampshire and Vermont, and down through all the mountain ranges 
to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, were settled chiefly by Catholic Irish, during 
the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth centuries." 



Confederate Bonds and Money i8i 

known, and who were able to show that I was a native of the State 
and not a RepubHcan in politics. As soon as I was released, I took the 
next train going to Montgomery, Alabama, then the seat of government 
of the Confederate States. On reaching Montgomery and before seeing 
my wife's relatives, I proceeded to the War Department and sought an 
interview with President Davis, with whom I had some acquaintance. 
I was unable to see him as he was attending a meeting of his Cabinet, but 
after some delay I had an interview with Mr. LeRoy Pope Walker, the 
Secretary of War. After hearing what I had to say, he excused himself 
and entered a back room, leaving the door partly open. I thus overheard 
Mr. Davis say: "Thank Dr. Emmet, and tell him his place is back in 
New York with his family. We have more doctors than we know what 
to do with, and more men than we can at present arm." Having dis- 
charged what I considered my duty, I have since many times thanked my 
good fortune in connection with Mr. Davis's decision. 

The estate of my father-in-law, Mr. Duncan, had just been settled 
and the money was on deposit in the bank, but finding that I could 
purchase no exchange on New York and that I would have to lose ten 
per cent, on London, and could not possibly run the risk of taking the 
money back with me, I decided to leave it, I thus parted with the 
portion of my wife, and her sister, who was living with us, leaving it in 
the charge of one of their brothers to be invested and cared for until more 
peaceful days. The result was that after the war I received Southern 
securities enough to make the most complete collection in existence of 
Confederate bonds and money, and it now forms part of the "Emmet 
Collection" in the Lenox Library.^ 

I had to return north up through Tennessee and Kentucky and was 
in Nashville when the State, as the last, joined the Confederacy. The 
passage was a tedious one, but it gave me the opportunity of seeing the 
great Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, through which I walked one night 
its entire length without any fatigue, as the atmosphere is so dry and 
pure. The Green River', after disappearing on the surface of the earth, 
runs through this cave for about three miles, along which a boat can be 
rowed. It again disappears from the cave to appear on the surface above 
and continue its course to its mouth. This river has a number of fish 

' In this connection I will state as a matter of interest that I have in my possession the 
original seal of the Confederate Treasury Department, which stamped every bond issued by 
the Confederate Government. Having investigated the subject, I find this is the only seal of 
the Confederate Goverrunent in existence. I purchased it from a New England soldier on his 
way home, who was among one of the first to enter Richmond after it was evacuated, and at 
the Capitol building finding this, mounted as it had been for use, with a brick had knocked the 
frame to pieces, and on reaching New York and being out of money parted with it to me. It 
should now be in other hands. 



i82 Incidents of my Life 



in it without eyes, thus illustrating a common occurrence in nature of 
non-development of an organ after some generations of disuse. So long 
have these fish been without eyes that no vestige even of the bony socket 
remains. 

From a short distance within the entrance of this cave the side and 
top were covered for miles with a countless number of bats, which must 
come to this place from a great portion of the world to hibernate. They 
were found there when the cave was first explored, and they had gained 
access through some unknown aperture. In the autumn they begin to 
arrive during the night, like the migration of birds, and at some time in 
the spring they suddenly wake and all disappear in a night. It is impos- 
sible to form the slightest idea as to their number, for they attach them- 
selves to each other, and in several places I gradually worked my walking 
cane in between them to the full depth without reaching the wall to which 
those who came first were attached. They seemed to be in a state of 
stupor, and seldom made the slightest movement when handled. It is 
difficult to understand the extent to which instinct must direct such a 
movement in the absence of all reasoning power, and from the want of 
brain development in such a creature as a bat. But how much more 
difficult is it to understand how the diminutive humming-bird can 
reach, from every part of the temperate portion of the earth at the proper 
season and with unerring instinct, a limited area of country in the upper 
part of South America, where they spend the winter and again scatter 
over the earth in the spring! 

I finally reached home to the great relief of my brave wife, who had 
kept her courage up although unable to hear from me and had to remain 
for weeks in ignorance as to what course I was to follow. What our 
future was to be, in the uncertainty, had during my absence seemed to 
her impenetrable beyond the seeming certainty that my professional 
career had ended. I soon got to work again, however, and in a few days 
was in the old rut attending to my business, taking no part in politics, or 
even to the expression of an opinion, unless some one sought it. The 
feeling ran so high that during the whole war I was never in the house of 
a Northern man, outside of my family connections, unless my professional 
services were desired. And yet I had many staunch friends among the 
Republicans, who looked after my welfare. As the law required, I 
reported previous to each draft that I was eligible, but I never was 
drafted, and gaining possession afterwards, for the historical value, of 
these draft records, which had been thrown aside as waste paper, I found 
some friends had each time placed a mark before my name to indicate I 
was exempt. Several days before the bill for the last draft was presented 
in Congress, I received a letter from a Republican member, notifying me 



Arbitrary Drafting in New York 183 

that soon there would be a sweeping draft made in the city of New York, 
so that I had better put a voluntary substitute in the army beforehand, 
and I acted on his advice. Through the city authorities a substitute 
was obtained, under the alleged name of Manning, for whom I paid eight 
hundred dollars and was within a few months repaid by the city. As it 
was reported to me, my man, for whom I was not responsible after he had 
enlisted, had deserted before reaching Elizabeth, N. J., I had no cause to 
be dissatisfied with the result. 

During a great portion of the war every letter addressed to me was 
delivered with one end cut open, after it had been read by the police, and 
I frequently was warned that all my servants had been tampered with 
and that everything I said or did was reported. As a consequence I kept 
in my safe two thousand dollars in gold, at a great privation to myself, 
that I might at a moment's notice be able to escape if necessary. I was 
termed a "Copperhead" because I was not a Republican, and yet I 
respected scrupulously the acts of the authorities, and no one in the land 
grieved more than I did over the situation, or had a greater love for the 
country as a whole. I did not differ greatly at the time with the grand 
incentive which prompted the organization of the Republican party, for I 
was on principle opposed to slavery, but I held the Southern people had 
the right, according to the Constitution, and that right must be respected. 
I was, however, bitterly opposed to the illegal indifference shown by the 
Republican leaders in the early part of the war for all law, and their per- 
fect disregard of every interest but that of party gain, and no people 
suffered more than the New Yorkers, as the majority were Democrats. 
The first draft was held with closed doors, in the second story of a house 
on Broadway, on the east side, between Twenty-eighth and Twenty -ninth 
Streets. Persons claimed to have been drafted were arbitrarily seized 
in the street without warrant, thrown into prison, or sent to the front and 
made to serve in the army, and their families remained for months in 
ignorance of their fate, and I personally knew of several instances where 
their fate was never known. The husband of a wet nurse employed in 
my house was a workman in a factory on the east side, with seventeen 
other Democrats and one Republican; to my knowledge the eighteen 
Democrats were all drafted and the Republican was the only one who 
escaped; and I heard of other like instances, but had no personal knowl- 
edge of the facts. A number of Catholic clergymen were drafted, while, so 
far as my knowledge extends, no Protestant clergyman was disturbed. 
In the convent of the Paulist Fathers, who took no part in politics, two 
or three were drafted, and I believe had to pay for substitutes. In fact, 
everything was done to exasperate the people in New York and to force 
them to an outbreak. The whole action was against the Irish people, 



i84 Incidents of my Life 



who were Democrats almost to a man, and yet had from the beginning 
promptly volunteered for the army. 

There were more individuals of Irish birth or of Irish parentage who 
served in the New York regiments, than the total number of any other 
nationality. If my memory serves me, the Sixty-ninth Irish Regiment, 
for instance, recruited its ranks over twice, if not three times, the original 
number which enlisted at the beginning of the war. If the comparison 
be based on the individual politics and the proportion to the population 
of the city, the number of Democrats who served through the whole war, 
from New York, will be found to exceed greatly the proportion or number 
of Republicans. 

My experience during the three days of the "Draft riot" I shall 
never forget, with my private hospital full of patients, many of them 
after serious surgical operations and who could not be moved, and with 
a sick child which I wished to move to the cotmtry, but my wife decided 
her duty was to remain with me, and I could not leave the city. The 
streets were then paved with cobble-stones, and these were quickly taken 
up to arm the people. The Irish were undoubtedly the instigators of 
the riot, for they had been exasperated to a sufficient degree, and the 
result was anticipated, but they did not take part for more than twenty- 
four hours, but in that time they succeeded in whipping out the police 
and the soldiers brought against them. The cobble-stones from the 
street were carried to the roofs of the houses in the tenement districts, 
and were thrown from that height by the women and children. The 
women whose husbands had been taken away from them to the war 
entered the fray below barefooted, having taken off their stockings, and 
in the toe of which a cobble-stone had been forced, making an effective 
slung-shot, which from its length could be used beyond the reach of the 
policeman's club, and was an irresistible means of defence against every 
other weapon but firearms. On Broadway at Twenty-eighth Street and 
across from the south corner of the street, I was told a barricade was 
formed as high as the second story in less than half an hour, against 
the expected arrival of a body of cavalry. One omnibus after another 
was seized in Fifth Avenue and elsewhere, and turned over on the side and 
filled with cobble-stones and dirt from the street to make the whole solid. 
Early in the afternoon Archbishop Hughes issued a circular and had 
it distributed over the city, calling upon all Catholic men and all others 
interested to assemble in front of his house on the northwest comer of 
Madison Avenue and Thirty-seventh Street, opposite the present resi- 
dence of J. P. Morgan. At the appointed hour thousands assembled and 
to an extent far beyond the reach of his voice. He was seated on the 
balcony alongside of the front door and was evidently very feeble, and 



Archbishop Hughes 185 

he died within a few months. He claimed his authority to be heard, at 
least by the Catholic people. He stated that there had been grievous 
cause of complaint, but that he had the assurance of the United States 
authorities that they should cease. He called upon every Catholic to 
return home immediately, to remain indoors and take no further part in 
the disturbance, and as a penalty, if his commands were not followed, 
he would instruct all the clergy to deny the rights of the Church to aU 
who might be injured thereafter while taking part in the riot. As he 
spoke some one would repeat what he said, and thus all present and 
beyond the sound of his voice were fully informed as to what the Arch- 
bishop had commanded. The crowd dispersed in an orderly manner and 
the Irish people of the city took no further part in the disturbance. 
But immediately the city was fiUed with thieves and disorderly persons 
from Philadelphia, Boston, and the surrounding country, who kept the 
city in a state of disorder for about two days and nights longer, before 
they were driven out. From the top of my house I counted no less than 
five different incendiary fires at the time started for the purpose of rob- 
bery, and the mob burned a number of police station houses. 

Archbishop Hughes had just returned from having undertaken a 
secret mission, at Mr. Lincoln's request, to counteract the double dealing 
of the English Government, which was at the time intriguing with the 
French to acknowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy. 
Through this influence every power of Europe was secretly opposed to 
the Northern side, with the exception of Russia, which country at a 
critical time sent a fleet, ostensibly on a friendly visit to the city of New 
York, but the secret history, as I was informed at the time, was that the 
Russian Government had put the fleet at the disposal of the United 
States Government in case England succeeded in her machinations. 
The Archbishop was probably the only person in the country who could 
have checked the move on the part of the English Government, as he 
happened to have been a personal friend of Louis Napoleon. He arrived 
at the critical moment, and possibly the Emperor may have obtained 
secret intelligence of the action on the part of Russia. However, Arch- 
bishop Hughes succeeded in gaining an ally for the United States Govern- 
ment, and checked a movement which would have assuredly brought 
about the recognition of the Confederate States. From the consumma- 
tion of this intrigue, England, doubtless, expected in time to conquer 
both sections, and finally thus to regain her old colonies. 

The United States Government did not long keep the promise to deal 
fairly with New York, or the authorities at Washington had their hands 
too full in conducting the war, and soon the political hacks were again at 
work. During the election day when General McClellan was voted for 



^86 Incidents of my Life 

as a candidate of the Democratic party for President, everything was 
done that ingenuity could devise to force the Democrats to the point of 
resistance. During the day a gunboat was stationed at the foot of many 
of the chief streets, with the guns run out and ready to fire. In Madison 
Square there was picketed about a thousand cavalry and a large body of 
troops was secretly stationed during the night at strategic points through- 
out the city, and the whole placed under the command of the redoubtable 
General Benjamin F. Butler, a noted collector of Southern bric-a-brac, 
and a man who reached the limit of his capacity and usefulness to the 
country as a bully over defenceless people. About the only person in the 
army on either side whose patriotism I doubted, was this man, from 
being in the South at the time of the Charleston Convention, and knowing 
as I did how he labored in the Southern interest to bring about the con- 
dition which he knew must lead to just the status which he afterward 
claimed to be disloyal. 

I registered before the election, and when I gave my name I saw that it 
was spelled properly when written, and I had the " e " made plainer so that 
it would not be mistaken for an undotted "i." As it was known that 
the number of places for voting had been greatly reduced in certain dis- 
tricts where the largest Democratic vote was usually polled and that 
the polls would not be in the control of either the State or city authorities, 
I determined to vote early. As soon as I ate my breakfast I got into Hne, 
then more than two blocks away, and hour after hour passed from the 
delay created at the polls, with every pretext. At length, about one 
o'clock, I reached the polls, and was first asked my name, although I was 
personally known to every man in the room; then I was asked to spell it, 
which I did, and immediately it was suggested that I should be arrested 
for attempting to vote under a false name. I insisted on seeing the 
record, which was reluctantly shown me, and stating that I had been 
careful to see that my name was properly spelled at the time I registered, 
and I pointed to the man who had charge of the books at the time and 
showed that no one could deny from the appearance of the record pro- 
duced that it had since been tampered with. The " e " was changed to " i " 
and an extra " t " had been added and in different ink. On this showing 
the arrest did not take place. I was notified, however, that as a doubt 
existed as to my identity, I could not vote unless I first procured a 
bondsman to give security that I was Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., and 
this was decided notwithstanding, as I have stated, I was known per- 
sonally to all in the room. I had then to go out and hunt up a bondsman ; 
this I succeeded in doing, and after being in line until after five o'clock 
I was at length just in time to deposit my vote for General McClellan, 
having been occupied from before nine in the morning until nearly five 



Aided by Assistant Secretary's Wife 187 

o'clock in the afternoon with a determined effort to exercise my right. 
On going out into the street I saw that nearly all in line were Democrats 
known to me, and they would be deprived of their vote from want of 
proper polling facilities and premeditated delays to intimidate every 
man whose position was not as fully established as mine was. I knew of 
several persons whose vote was challenged, and who were carried off by a 
policeman and locked up until the polls were closed, and then discharged, 
having been thus prevented from voting the Democratic ticket. 

I saw more lawlessness and despotism practised under the plea of 
exigency and necessity for saving the country than the most despotic 
ruler of any country would have dared practise. That the country was 
not lost, rested not with the claimed salvagers, but with a merciful 
Providence, in prompting those who suffered to exercise a degree of for- 
bearance which alone saved the country. 

A wife of one of the Assistant Secretaries at Washington was under 
my professional care at an early period in the war, and to the end. 
Through her influence I was able to send hundreds of blankets, shoes, 
and many other things, including money, to the Confederate prisoners 
throughout the country. By some means it became generally known 
among those interested that I had this influence, and at length it became 
burdensome to regulate the proper distribution of money and clothing 
which was sent to me by strangers. I had a brother-in-law in Wheeler's 
Cavalry who was taken prisoner somewhere in Tennessee, when Hood 
was ordered by the Confederate authorities to make a raid to check 
Sherman's advance in the South. He was taken to Fort Delaware in 
perfect health, although for months he had lived in the saddle without 
any regular rations beyond sharing with his horse the corn, which he 
parched, and an occasional chicken, when he had the good fortune to pick 
one up. I obtained a pass for my wife to visit her brother, and in a few 
days after her return I was informed, by a letter from one of the prisoners, 
that he had died suddenly. I then wrote to the commanding officer 
who in return informed me, through his secretary, that if I did not know 
the fact, he wished to inform me that he had something of more impor- 
tance to do than to know if James Duncan of Regt. of the Con- 
federate Cavalry was dead or not. I immediately replied that he was 
mistaken in a knowledge of his duty, that it was not only within the 
range of his duty to know if James Duncan was dead, but his business 
was, in addition, to respond to any reasonable request for information; 
I moreover stated that if I did not hear within a week I would report the 
matter to Washington, and then I called on my old patient to arrange 
the matter for me. In a few days I received a most satisfactory report, 
showing that my relative, Mr. Duncan, had not died, but another 



^^^ Incidents of my Life 

prisoner of the same name, and it was accompanied with a kind offer to 
aid me in any other matter within his power, and I made good use of him 
afterward. Mr. Duncan while a prisoner suffered greatly from priva- 
tion and from want of food, both in quantity and quality, which the 
Government had doubtless liberally provided for, but it was robbed. 
As the war advanced the prisoners became more and more under the 
charge of political hacks, who passed for military men, but who managed 
through influence to get into some bomb-proof position and held it for 
all they could make out of it. When the truthful history of the Civil 
War comes to be written, it will be shown that all complained of at 
Andersonville existed before the end of the war in nearly every Northern 
prison, and that the Government was being regularly robbed. My 
brother-in-law was never well after his discharge and finally died from 
the effects of his experience in Fort Delaware. Poor Wirz was a martyr, 
and like Mrs. Surratt was sacrificed to appease misdirected public senti- 
ment. I knew Wirz personally to be a kind, humane man and he lost his 
life for a condition existing at Andersonville for which he was not respon- 
sible. Secretary Stanton officially made the United States Government 
responsible for every death and privation suffered by the Northern 
prisoners at Andersonville. The original records are still preserved in 
private hands, I am told, showing that the Confederate authorities 
offered to give up without exchange the prisoners held at Andersonville, 
as the Confederate Government could neither feed them, nor supply 
them with medicine. This offer Mr. Stanton refused as a clever piece 
of statecraft, to be used for political capital in the approaching Presi- 
dential election and to embarrass the South as much as possible. When 
the last of these unfortunate prisoners did come into the hands of the 
Government, striking photographs and a stirring narrative filling several 
volumes were issued by the Government officials to inflame and influence 
public opinion, without stating that the soldiers in the Confederate Army, 
as the United States Government knew, had received the same food and 
supplies as were issued to the prisoners at Andersonville, and in some 
parts of the country they were at times without any regular rations. 

Shortly after my return from the South, Dr. Sims went abroad to 
determine as to the advisability of settling in England or France to 
practise his profession on the reputation he had already established in 
this country. The fact was known to me that his practice in New York 
had not been increasing for some time. He, as a Southern man, had not 
been prudent in the expression of his views and as a large proportion of 
his practice had always been from the South it naturally decreased, and 
ceased when the war began. He was absent abroad for a year or more 
and met with a most flattering success. During his absence, with more 



Managers of Hospital ''Demoralized" 189 

time at my command, I had doubled the number of operations and 
treated a larger proportion of cases in the hospital than had ever been 
treated before. Immediately on his return he began to make his prepara- 
tions to live abroad with his family, and finally sailed as a pronounced 
Southern sympathizer. 

As a curious feature of human nature I will state that on Dr. Sims's 
departure for Europe, the Lady Managers became so "demoralized" 
as to consider the advisability of closing the hospital, notwithstanding 
my record and the fact that Dr. Sims had done no work in the hospital 
for over a year ; and taking the clue from those in authority, the patients 
all left the hospital, as if fleeing for safety. 



Chapter XV 



Several anecdotes showing the eccentricities of some of the members of the Consulting Board 
of the Woman's Hospital— A novel objection to the use of hoop-skirts— Celebrated black 
pills — Their efficacy explained on the theory of modern medicine — An old negro's object- 
tion to homoeopathy— I wrote a eulogy on John C. Calhoun, as dictated— A new use for 
Spauldmg's glue— Mrs. T. C. Doremus— Her work at the Hospital was never appreciated 
— Mrs. John Jacob Astor wished to build an addition to the Woman's Hospital, for the 
treatment of cancer — The cause of Dr. Sims's resignation — Mrs. Astor and her two sisters, 
Mrs. Gen. Cullum and Mrs. Judge Peabody, founded the Cancer Hospital, now called 
the Memorial Hospital— I was the first person consulted as to their plans, and urged 
by them to take charge of it — My reasons for not doing so— Their wishes were not carried 
out by the erection of the Memorial Hospital— Dear old Margaret Brennan, the first 
nurse of the Woman's Hospital— The women of the world do not know the extent to which 
they are indebted to this good woman — She is most worthy of a lasting monument — 
Mischief-makers between Dr. Sims and myself— Before his death he was fully satisfied 
that he had been misled— Unable to see him before his death— I had the honor and sat- 
isfaction of being selected to deliver his eulogium before the New York Academy of 
Medicine, Jan. 3, 1884 — Annoyed for many years by the ungenerous interference with 
my work, as Surgeon-in-Chief to the Woman's Hospital— The Lady Managers were in- 
fluenced by the views of certain physicians who were not directly connected with the 
institution — Delay in getting the appointment of my assistants confirmed — Made the 
acquaintance of Dr. Josiah Nott, formerly of Mobile — Mrs. Owz6 and Mrs. La Vert, two 
remarkable women formerly of Mobile — Mrs. Owze's death in the burning of the Windsor 
Hotel fire— Trouble in getting the appointment of Drs. Nott, Clymer, and Lent confirmed 
as my assistants — The printing of the Report and By-laws by the Lady Managers not a 
success, an amusing mistake— Placed at the head of the Woman's Hospital at the age of 
33— Made a Manager of the New York Institute for the Blind — Much in relation to myself 
I find difficult to place in the table of contents — Began to teach — My clinical lectures 
were attended by physicians from all parts of the world— I applied the laws of mechanics 
to plastic surgery. 




NLY on probation was I allowed to continue my work, 
and would not have been able to accomplish any- 
thing had I not taken, from time to time, from my 
private hospital, patients I needed to operate on and 
who were willing to go, as under the circumstances 
they were treated free of charge, consequently I held 
my position and kept the hospital open at a great 
pecuniary loss to myself. At length I was formally appointed Surgeon- 
in-Chief, and was then able to firmly establish my position. 

During the term of probation the Lady Managers saw to it with a 
watchful eye that I attended to my business and to a degree which 
greatly embarrassed me in the proper discharge of my duty. A favorite 

190 



Consulting Board of Woman's Plospital 191 

method was to insist that I should seek advice from the Consulting Board 
of Physicians and Surgeons. These gentlemen became, according to the 
by-laws, members of the Consulting Board ex-officio, as president of the 
Academy of Medicine, the County Society and other positions, and 
there was no branch of medicine or surgery of which they knew less than 
the diseases of women, for which only I would need their services. 

One day a policeman picked up in the street a woman in a state of 
collapse, who spoke a language unknown to me, and who was suffering 
from a serious disturbance of the bowels. She was in too weak a condi- 
tion to be transferred to a general hospital, and I had been watching her 
closely for a day or two and having her carefully nursed to regain her 
strength. The president of the Executive Board of Managers at length 
came to me and asked me how this woman was getting on. Her reply 
was: "You must have a consultation, doctor, as you acknowledge she is 

very low. I passed Dr. as I was coming here, and if you will 

appoint a time, I will make the arrangement with him." When the con- 
sulting physician arrived, with very much the general bearing of Dr. 
Pangloss in Colman's play. The Heir at Law, he was told about the case 
from my standpoint, and then we proceeded to the bedside. After the 
routine of counting the pulse and examination of the tongue, he turned to 
me with the inquiry, "Did you bleed her, doctor?" I replied, "No, 
doctor." "Did she get any calomel?" I answered I saw no indication 
for any medicine, but had her nursed carefully to bring up her strength 
if possible. He threw up his hands with the exclamation: "Then God 
be with her," and left the room. I followed and opened the front door 
for his exit. The market boy happened to pass in with a basket of 
peaches, and as I had lost my lunch waiting for the consultant, I took 
several and was eating one as I passed the patient's bed. She seized 
three I had in my hand and had swallowed one almost whole before I 
could make a movement. My first impulse was to take the others from 
her, but her action was such that on the instant I was convinced it was 
due to a craving of nature, and putting my hand in my pocket I gave her 
another. When I returned half an hour later, she was sound asleep. 
Shortly after, a policeman came in to learn of her condition, as there 
had been a search for her, and I learned she was a Dane, and had but 
recently landed after an unusually long voyage, attended with much 
privation. It then became evident that her case was one of obscure 
scurvy, where her gums had shown no special indication of the disease. 
A few days after, my friend the Lady Manager, who had procured for me 
the consultation, stopped me and said, "Now doctor, you see the advan- 
tage of older and experienced counsel, for that woman has improved 
every moment since Dr. saw her ! " I expressed my great satisfaction 



192 Incidents of my Life 

at the woman's recovery, but gave her no further explanation, as it would 
have been a waste of time, and my relation with her remained undis- 
turbed ; in fact, my apparent acquiescence in her good judgment doubt- 
less secured for me afterwards the appointment of Surgeon. 

Dr. Pangloss was, however, not altogether a bad practitioner, as he 
was strong in the faith that the greater part of the ailments of man were 
due to overeating and to erroneous diet. But he was a poor business 
man, so that his good wife had to keep the books on information from 
the driver, and from noting the calls at the houses for his services. She 
would always answer the ringing of his ofhce bell, and having noted the 
summons, if the doctor was in, she would call out, "Mary Ann, bring 
the doctor's hat, his gold-headed cane, and the box of Triplex pills." The 
old doctor after the "consultation" took quite a fancy to me, and would 
occasionally honor me with a visit, which I always enjoyed, as he pos- 
sessed an inexhaustible store of crude undigested facts, and he had a most 
extended acquaintance among distinguished men at home and abroad. 
One day he called and was in an unusual state of perturbation, for he was, 
as a rule, most genial. As he entered he said, " Damn those hoop-skirts ! " 
As I received no explanation and there was nothing in the neighborhood 
leading up to hoop-skirts, I supposed the old gentleman had failed in 
some commercial enterprise for their manufacture. It being about noon, 
I prescribed for him his accustomed toddy, to which he made no objection ; 
in truth I may state he accepted with marked avidity. As soon as the 
toddy had reached the right spot, he turned to me and said, "Young 
man, there was a time when I could look about me in church on Sunday 
and form some idea as to what my income was to be, but since the 
invention of these damn hoop-skirts I can form no opinion. I am out 

and about attending to my business, and the first I hear is that Mrs. 

or Mrs. gets into the straw, and as I cannot be found some young 

whipper-snapper is called in, and gets the case, damn them!" 

The poor doctor was certainly impressed with the conviction that he 
had a grievance. 

This advocate for the use of Triplex pills was not the only dispenser 
of special pills who practised in New York during the early part of the 

past century. Dr. H was a contemporary, but an older man 

than the avowed opposer of hoop-skirts, yet the younger man copied 

many of the eccentricities of his senior. Dr. H. was a man of 

more depth and observation, for he was a noted practitioner of medicine 
in his day. I can recall seeing him in my early life when I was about 
seven years of age, and he had become obese and lethargic both in body 
and mind, so that I never saw any evidence of his earlier talent. He 
was particularly famous for a little black pill, the composition of which 



Little Black Pills 193 

no one knew, as at that time physicians generally compounded their own 
medicines. I have been told it was then very common to hear one person 

advise another to get from Dr. H. one of his little black pills. 

He doubtless had been a man of close observation, and gave little medi- 
cine, recognizing as he did the fact that nineteen out of every twenty sick 
persons will, through the efforts of nature, get well by being kept in 
bed under a restricted diet, but then it requires the expert to know in 
time the twentieth case, and to know how to treat it. But, as is very 
often the case, the doctor did not practise what he prescribed, and was 
himself a heavy eater. In accord with nature, after a good meal it was 
his custom to keep his seat, to chew the cud as it were, and he often 
occupied his time, as if for the want of something better to do, in rolling 
up with his fingers any bread crumbs which may have been left. I 
remember his coat was a peculiar cut, probably one fashionable in his 
early life, with very long sleeves so that the cuffs were always turned 
back for five or six inches. Towards the end of his career it was found 
that he had a receptacle in these ctiifs where he carried his celebrated 
little black pills. In later years, hearing of these famous pills, I made 
some inquiry, and came to the conclusion they were simply bread pills. 
The rich ebony color was explained by one of my aunts who said, 
"When the doctor was in practice, I often wondered why he did not 
wash his hands as they were always filthy." With the moist condition in 
which his hands would be likely to be after his exercise of feeding, the 
dense and noted color of his little black pills could be thus accounted for. 

The germ theory on which the modem practice of medicine rests 
depends greatly on the game-cock-like destruction of one set of microbes 
by another. As our worthy doctor's hands were always in a condition 
far from being sterilized, they may have furnished a more ferocious set of 
microbes than the average, and this circumstance may account for the 
great efficacy of Dr. H. 's little black pills. 

The little black pill would not have answered for an old negro man 
I once heard expressing his opinion of homoeopathy: "I don't bleve 
in dis here new fashioned stuff. I likes sarching medicine, like calomen 
and jolop and senney and salts, and like dem dat 's got a grip to dem!" 

Another of the Consulting Board with whom I had to consult, or 
rather to pay him the compliment of an invitation to a consultation, was 
a noted surgeon and a man of ability in his special line. He was an old 
friend of my father and they had studied medicine together, and he 
was a surgeon in the old City Hospital, or New York Hospital as now 
called, then situated in Broadway, opposite Pearl Street, on four or five 
acres of ground, with a number of the primitive forest trees about it. I 
decided to make an effort to obtain a position in this hospital, and just 
13 



194 Incidents of my Life 



before my examination for graduation I came on from Philadelphia to 
take the necessary steps. Learning that this gentleman had the nomi- 
nation for the next vacancy in the City Hospital, I called on him and 
introduced myself. As I entered his office he was walking up and down 
the room and he evidently paid no attention to what I had to say, but 
putting a pen into my hand he pushed me into a chair and said, "Write." 
He then proceeded to dictate an eulogy on John C. Calhoun, who had 
been a fellow student at Yale, and which was to be read before one of 
the collegiate societies. After three hours' work of repeating and 
rewriting, he accomplished what he wanted, and conducting me to the 
door said, "Come back and breakfast with me to-morrow, and I will hear 
what you have to say." I arrived on time, but he had evidently for- 
gotten all about the invitation for breakfast, and after telling me that 
he did not have the nomination I was bowed out. The old gentleman 
knew nothing of abdominal surgery, but he had the instincts of a sagacious 
man. I recollect being present at a consultation called by Dr. Sims 
shortly after the hospital was opened. There was a case in the hospital of 
a pedunculated fibroid tumor, which Dr. Sims proposed to remove by 
opening the abdomen and ligating the pedicle to remove it. After Dr. 
Sims had explained the operation, all the Board, with the weakness of 
human nature, except this gentleman, voted in favor of the operation. 
He, however, voted, as he stated, against it on general principles. He 
acknowledged that he knew nothing about fibroid tumors, in fact he 
doubted if he had ever heard of one before, that he had every confidence 
in Dr. Sims's skill, possibly he might succeed, "but if he did, every young 
doctor in the land would be opening the abdomens of all the young 
women to see if they had fibrous tumors!" 

When he met me in consultation he frankly acknowledged that he had 
no knowledge of the condition and as I was in the position to assiime 
the responsibility I must do what I felt was best under the circumstances. 
The old gentleman resigned shortly after, and I had heard nothing of him 
for years, when a mutual friend told me of the following circumstance. 
He was supposed to have been in his dotage for some time, when one day 
he appeared with his intellect perfectly clear, a not unusual circumstance 
in old people a short time before the end, as the last flicker, before 
the extinction of a burned out candle. The family was delighted at the 
restoration, and after he learned that one of the family was sick in the 
house from typhoid fever, and that they were all anxious, as the patient 
had reached the stage of ulceration and the accompanying diarrhoea, 
he expressed a desire to see the case, and without notifying the attending 
physician he was allowed to prescribe and administer three doses which 
it was supposed he had compounded. It was found he had given three 



Mrs. Doremus and Mrs. Astor 195 

tablespoonfuls of Spaulding's glue, which had just been introduced but 
for another purpose ! 

There were two persons in connection with my early experience in the 
Woman's Hospital, and both of them beyond doubt will be placed at the 
right hand when they receive their final reward for their good work in 
this world. One was Mrs. T. C. Doremus, a sincere Presbyterian, who 
did the chief work in the beginning and continued to give her support to 
the hospital until her death. For years Mrs. Doremus was nominally 
at the head of the Board of Managers of the hospital, but leaving credit 
and honors to others she made it her special work to look after the supply 
of food and delicacies for the patients. I would meet the dear old lady, 
on my arrival in the early morning to see some special patient, and she 
would often say, "Doctor, we have not an ounce of food in the house, nor 
a penny to purchase any, but I must be off and get something for dinner." 
I would laughingly reply, "Well, Mrs. Doremus, with nothing how are 
you going to manage and get something?" She would answer, "Friend, 
the Lord will provide what we need." Soon I would see her at prayer 
behind a door in some comer, and then she would go out with her face 
beaming with good- will and charity. She had a large acquaintance, and 
would not go far before she would meet some one who would give her 
what she needed and she would fill her basket to be sent back by the 
butcher boy, with a full supply of all we required \mtil next day. This 
mode of living from hand to mouth, as it were, went on at times for 
weeks, and the existence of the Woman's Hospital I believe for years 
depended chiefly on the efforts of this noble woman, for which she re- 
ceived but little credit from those associated with her : in fact every effort 
was made to force her to resign. Mrs. Doremus had accomplished more 
for the welfare of the hospital than all of the other members of the 
Board of Managers together, and without wishing or seeking credit. 

We have had several other like instances of injustice in the manage- 
ment of the Woman's Hospital. At a subsequent period Mrs. John 
Jacob Astor, who lived at the comer of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-third 
Street, was indefatigable in her work at the Woman's Hospital, and she 
was particularly anxious to have it the recipient of a permanent endow- 
ment, in relation to which I had the honor of being consulted before her 
husband learned of her wishes. She wished to erect on one of the unoc- 
cupied comers of the grounds a building to correspond to the Wetmore 
and Baldwin pavilions, and that it should bear my name. I respectfully 
declined the honor as being an inappropriate one while I was living. 
For reasons confided to me, Mrs. Astor wished this building devoted 
exclusively to the special study and treatment of cancer. I am at liberty 
at least to state the chief reason which prompted Mrs. Astor to propose 



196 Incidents of my Life 

building the "Emmet Pavilion," at the Woman's Hospital, for the treat- 
ment of cancer. She was a member of the Board of Lady Managers 
after the change in the medical management of the hospital in 1871, 
and when Dr. Sims again became one of the visiting surgeons. He had 
persisted in treating cases of cancer in his wards, on the ground that a 
disease from which so large a proportion of women died should be treated 
in a hospital devoted to the diseases of the sex. In consequence he was 
forced to resign, as the Board would not yield the point and allow patients 
in the incipient stages to be admitted. 

Mrs. Astor was under the impression that the reason for refusing 
admission to these cases was due to the want of accommodation and 
proper facilities for treatment. After having given all due thought to 
her charitable purpose her plans were submitted to the Board of Governors 
of the hospital. The managers of the Woman's Hospital declined to ac- 
cept Mrs. Astor's offer, and she at least felt that the refusal had not been a 
gracious one. The fund to have been used for the purpose had been formed 
by Mrs. Astor and her two sisters, Mrs. General Cullum and Mrs. Judge 
Peabody. These three ladies died before their wishes had been carried 
out, but the fund was left in trust to build a special cancer hospital. In 
time the building was erected, but it was not placed in the hands of medi- 
cal men who had either the time or training for special work of this kind. 
It was the wish of Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Cullum that I should take charge 
of the hospital when it was built, but I declined as I considered my first 
obHgation was to the Woman's Hospital, and if I had time to serve 
both, I would have declined, as I felt I was wanting in both the special 
knowledge and special training necessary to carry out their wishes. I 
do not know that any effort was made to establish an exclusively cancer 
hospital; at least any case from the beginning, as in a general hospital, 
was received if able to pay the board. As the name "Cancer Hospital" 
was objected to by the class of cases received, it was changed to the 
Memorial Hospital, a term well fitted to commemorate if not a breach of 
trust, certainly an absolute miscarriage in carrying out the wishes of the 
founders. ^ 

Dear old Margaret Brennan, a zealous Catholic, stood at my elbow 
for nearly forty years in the Woman's Hospital as chief nurse. While 
yet under thirty years of age, at the opening of the Woman's Hospital, 

I The last report of the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital contains the following state- 
ment: "Remember that 3488 persons died from cancer in Greater New York in 1909, and 
that none of the general hospitals admit cases which are considered incurable, and it is evi- 
dent that a large number must die each year without the care and treatment which they should 
have. It is also apparent that the' few places to which the indigent poor can go and spend 
their remaining days in comparative peace and quiet, other than the Almshouse Hospital, 
can accommodate only a small proportion of the number afflicted." 



Margaret Brennan 197 

she was the first employed as chambermaid and nurse. But she showed 
such aptitude that in a short time she was given the position exclusively 
of nurse. She was a most remarkable woman, who could neither read nor 
write and yet never was known to have made a mistake or forgotten an 
order. She was always cheerful, and her degree of tact and ability to 
encourage the patients I have never known equalled. With her and in 
the early days of the hospital, I gained results in plastic surgery which 
in later years I found impossible with any trained nurse. She could give 
a glow of immaculate cleanliness to a surface in preparation for an opera- 
tion I have never seen equalled. She served God every moment of her 
life in her vocation as a nurse. 

All who have ever visited the Woman's Hospital in former days can 
recall her placid face, as she stood hour after hour holding the instrument 
immovable. I have sometimes seen a slight movement of her lips, and 
have said to her in an tmdertone, "Margaret, whom are you praying for 
now?" Her answer was, "For you and everybody," which was literally 
true, as her whole thought was for everybody but herself. 

For faithful and untiring service, skilful nursing, close observation, 
and observance of detail, the world, or rather every woman in it and for 
all time is and will be indebted to Margaret Brennan for an unrecognized 
debt of gratitude, and to an extent which can never be appreciated, as to 
how much she contributed toward the development of gynecology. 

As soon as Dr. Sims went abroad, mischief-makers, jealous of both 
of us and friends to neither, began to make trouble between us, which 
to my sorrow was never fully cleared up on account of their per- 
sistent enmity toward me. It is an obligation to be charitable and to 
aid others, but it is inscrutable that the risk has always to be run in mak- 
ing enemies by placing any one under obligation to you. Those who 
have worried me the most through my professional life have been without 
exception individuals who were under the greatest obligation. Mark 
Twain has written:'' "If you pick up a starving dog and make him 
prosperous, he will never bite you. This is the principal difference 
between a dog and a man." This is not doing justice to the dog, as I have 
never known one to forget a kindness; a man seldom remembers one. 
I was informed by a mutual friend that Dr. Sims, a few days before the 
sudden illness which caused his death, expressed the wish to see me and 
to tell me how much he regretted that for years he had been misled, and 
that he believed I had always been honest in my relations with him. To 
my sorrow, at the time I was absent from the city and did not return 
until after his death. 

I attempted in every paper I have written to do justice to my old 

' " Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar." 



Incidents of my Life 



friend and to express the great obligation due him. During our joint 
service of five and a half years at the Woman's Hospital, my relation 
with Dr. Sims was as close as that of a son. If he had not given us 
certain instruments which opened the way for investigation, with a 
knowledge of the use of silver wire and his perfect technic, I would never 
have been known to the world in connection with gynecology. But it 
was part of the policy of those who wished to underrate my work to give 
Dr. Sims undue credit, in attempting to show that I had done nothing. 
Beyond the limit I have stated as to time, our work afterward lay on 
different lines and was viewed from different standpoints, without the 
slightest connection one with the other. 

I had the gratification to have been selected by the Academy of 
Medicine to prepare a memoir of Dr. Sims, which I read before that 
body, January 3, 1884. 

During nearly the whole period whUe I was at the head of the 
Woman's Hospital, I was annoyed by interference and delay in the ap- 
pointing of my assistants. In accord with the by-laws I had the nomi- 
nation and my selection was to be approved without question, imless 
the managers could state some good cause for not doing so. There was 
an incredible amount of work to be done in the hospital and we were always 
short-handed, as the accommodations for the house surgeons v/ere very 
limited. I had certain nominal friends who unfortunately were the 
family physicians of many of the Lady Managers, and they were always 
seeking among the managers to criticise and to pass judgment, in a con- 
fidential way, on those I selected for my assistants. As the Board of 
Managers met but once a month, whenever the nomination was not acted 
on promptly, but returned stating it had been ascertained the nominee 
had no knowledge of the specialty, it meant that I had to do the extra 
work for the ensuing month, as my assistants were all too busy to do 
more. The managers, of course, could never know that this was only 
a subterfuge to give me trouble, as my assistants were there to learn. 
This underhanded work was not prompted by the instincts of gentlemen 
nor in the interest of the hospital, but was both cowardly and malicious, 
and I shotild never have been subjected to the annoyance as I was year 
after year without being able to gain in my own defence positive proof of 
the actors. In the autumn of 1865 Dr. Josiah Nott, of Mobile, Ala., 
settled in New York to begin life again by the practice of his profession 
at about sixty years of age, having become impoverished by the war. 
He was a native of South Carolina and had gone to Mobile on account of 
his health, where he ultimately became the most prominent physician in 
the city. He was accompanied to New York by several of his family, 
and among them was his sister-in-law, Mrs. Ouze, who had probably as 



Mrs. Ouz6 and Mrs. LeVert 199 

extensive an acquaintance and as many personal friends as her towns- 
woman, the noted Mrs. Dr. LeVert, the widow of a prominent physician 
in Mobile, and the daughter of George Walton, one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence from Georgia, and who came to New York 
about the same time as the Nott family did from Mobile, 

These two ladies were remarkable women, and although they were 
past middle life they were so bright and attractive in their manners 
that they would be immediately surrounded by men of all ages at any 
assemblage, and in greater number than any girl could bring about her. 
My acquaintance with Mrs. Dr. LeVert was slight, although I had met 
her just after my marriage and with my wife had been present at a large 
entertainment given by her, when she was prosperous. She was left 
after the war in almost destitute circumstances, and on coming North 
had attempted to gain a support by lecturing. As she was so attractive 
and had so many personal friends, I have been told she could go to any 
hotel and remain as long as she wished and no charge was ever made her. 
After a few years and only seeing her from time to time, she passed out 
of my knowledge about 1870, and I am ignorant of her after history, but 
I suppose she must have died, as she became of a very full habit in after- 
life. 

I had never met Mrs. Ouze before she came to New York, but she was 
a friend of my wife's mother, I think as old schoolmates. For many 
years we saw a good deal of her during the summer, at Narragansett Pier, 
and my wife kept up the friendly relation in town, Mrs. Ouze's death 
was a most heartrending one, as she was burned to death, with so many 
others, when the Windsor Hotel on Fifth Avenue was destroyed, March 
17, 1899. The loss of life was not as great as it might have been if the 
fire had occurred at night. But all the ladies, at least, were in their rooms 
after lunch, resting or preparing to go out for the afternoon. The fire 
spread so rapidly that the first intimation of danger many received was 
the appearance of the flames in their rooms. 

Dr. Nott was personally a very attractive man and I became much 
attached to him. He was a bookworm and with his taste for historical 
matters, we had much in common, notwithstanding the great disparity 
in our ages. He was a man of literary habits and the author of a number 
of articles on medical and scientific subjects. He made a world-wide 
reputation from being the author of Types of Mankind, which he wrote 
in conjunction with George R. Gliddon, in 1854, In 1848 he published 
a book denying that miasma was the cause of either yellow fever or malaria, 
and so far as I have any knowledge on the subject my impression is that 
he was the first to claim that the mosquito was the agent by which yellow 
fever was propagated and in this book his views were elaborated. After 



Incidents of my Life 



forming Dr. Nott's acquaintance and appreciating his intimate knowl- 
edge of the practice of medicine, I decided to offer him a position at the 
Woman's Hospital, which would give him in New York a professional 
standing at once. Although he knew but little in connection with the 
practice of gynecology, I felt that his personal reputation would be of ad- 
vantage to the hospital. He accepted gladly the position and felt under 
the greatest obligation for the compliment I had paid him. 

I sent his name to the Board of Lady Managers for confirmation, which 
in accord with the by-laws was intended to be but a matter of form, yet 
in consequence of the uncalled-for interference of one or two members 
of the profession, who happened to be the family physicians of some of 
the Lady Managers, and who volunteered their criticism on Dr. Nott's 
fitness for the position, a delay of several weeks occurred. I finally 
obtained a settlement of the matter by attending a meeting of the man- 
agers and carried my point only after giving a free expression of my views. 
But the doctor held his place but for a few months, as the managers were 
so blindly prejudiced by the representations made as to keep him con- 
stantly annoyed by the espionage to which he was subjected. If he was 
a few minutes late he would be promptly requested, through an official 
communication, to be more punctual, and so with every other issue raised, 
while the other surgeons were not interfered with. Complaints, it was 
represented to him, were being made by his patients as to his rough man- 
ner and want of dexterity, all of w^hich were but fabrications, as he held 
the reputation of being an expert and successful surgeon, and he was in 
manner one of the gentlest and kindest persons I ever knew. He suffered 
from the intrigues of those who had been unable to get from me a position 
as surgeon in the hospital, and hoped with each vacancy they might be 
benefited. I was literally helpless and had no relief for myself but to 
resign, an act by which the hospital would not have been aided, and I 
would have been found wanting in my duty. Women without reasoning 
power and as partisans, holding the management of the Woman's Hospital 
at this time, demonstrated that they are not, as a rule, fitted by nature 
for such a trust. 

When I began the study of medicine in 1845, Dr. Meredith Clymer 
was a man in middle life and a professor in the Franklin Medical School 
of Philadelphia, which had been recently established and with its faculty 
would have eventually been successful if it had not had the Jefferson 
Medical College and the Medical School of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania as competitors. Dr. Clymer had already written his classical work 
on fevers, which gave him an extended reputation at home and abroad, 
and he was considered one of the best practitioners of medicine in the 
country. During the Civil War he was in charge of different military 



Dr. Meredith Clymer 201 



hospitals, and after the close of the war he settled in New York, where 
he began to practise with as much zeal as a young man. I met him 
socially shortly after his coming to New York, and in consideration of 
the difference in our ages, I appreciated the compliment in his having 
so frequently sought my company. He had many idiosyncrasies and 
made few friends, as he was very free in his criticisms. We, however, 
remained on most friendly terms for several years, and I profited greatly 
by his friendship, as I was seldom in his company without learning 
something. He frequently visited the hospital to see me operate, but 
seemed to take no other interest in the specialty. One day he surprised 
me with the request that I should give him a position as one of my assist- 
ants, although he was old enough to have been my father. As there 
were always a number of patients in the hospital requiring the special 
attention of a practitioner of medicine, and it was a tax upon the time of 
the surgeons to give this, I made a place for him. 

I stated to the Board of Lady Managers my special purpose in his 
appointment and that the doctor's reputation was so extensive that his 
connection with the hospital would be of great benefit. The members of 
the Board all seemed to appreciate fully the advantage from his appoint- 
ment, and I anticipated no difficulty in his confirmation. But, unfortu- 
nately a week intervened before the next meeting, at which nothing was 
done, and on inquiry I was met with a number of absurd reasons given 
why Df. Clymer was not a proper person for the position. After five 
weeks' delay I notified the managers that if the appointment of the doc- 
tor was not acted on at that meeting, my resignation would go into effect 
on the following day. During the interval Dr. Clymer's manner changed 
and he avoided several efforts I made to explain the situation, so far as it 
rested with me. Our old cordial relations were never re-established after 
he entered upon his duties. After a few weeks he resigned, having been 
forced to do so by being constantly annoyed under one pretext and 
another, by some of the Lady Managers. 

After his resignation all intercourse ceased, as he made it evident to 
me this was his wish. I learned afterward that he had been assured by 
some "friends" that I never intended him to get the position, as I wished 
it for some one else. 

By the same underhanded course and intrigue, I was deprived of the 
services of Dr. Lent, of Cold Springs, N. Y., who was a valuable assistant 
to me, and he was forced to resign as he was not allowed to attend 
properly to his duties. Thus, for ten years was I subjected to this petty 
persecution which was maintained without intermission and with the 
expectation that I would eventually resign as Surgeon-in-Chief. But 
failing in the purpose. Dr. Sims, as one of the Governors, and reap- 



202 Incidents of my Life 

pointed at my request on his return from Europe, at length was made 
a tool of, to influence the Board of Governors as to the necessity for a 
change of the organization, from a Surgeon-in-Chief which I held, to a 
Board of Visiting Surgeons, and by this change a position in the hospital 
was secured for himself by the chief mover. 

I would have resigned at the beginning of the annoyance if I had 
consulted simply my own convenience or interest, but I had made up my 
mind to remain at my post, as a matter of duty, and to continue so long 
as I could render any service; and this course I held for nearly thirty 
years from that time, without the sHghtest consideration given by myself 
to my personal feelings or interests. 

I had been in the habit of making out the yearly reports for the Lady 
Managers and having them printed, but did so only because I had had 
more experience. At one time by the same outside influence, some of the 
managers were prompted to believe that I had too much to say in every- 
thing, and that it would be the proper thing for them to appoint a Com- 
mittee on Printing and have it prepare the report. So the committee 
was appointed, and I knew nothing of the matter imtil I was shown a 
copy of the newly-printed report with an air of great triumph, as if to 
say, "You see, we can get on perfectly well without your help." 

I happened to open the report among the by-laws and the first thing 
which caught my eye was: "No more than two Lady Managers shall 
talk on the same subject at the same time!" I showed that no 
change had been effected as the whole Board could still talk at the same 
time, as the members had always done, but only two could now talk on 
the same subject at the same time ; unless a selection was made for two 
to speak on one subject, all could speak together, but" each must have a 
special theme. The pamphlet was snatched out of my hand and the 
whole edition was suppressed, so that only the printer and myself, outside 
of the committee, ever saw a copy of this by-law. The world, therefore, 
must remain in ignorance of how many other Uterary curiosities were 
contained within its pages. After the next meeting I was requested to 
supervise the printing of the report "as usual," which I did without com- 
ment, but I received no notification that the by-laws had been amended. 

I was elected for the year 1866 to serve as a member of the Board of 
JVIanagers in charge of the New York Institution for the Blind, a work 
which interested me greatly, but after an active service during the j^ear, 
I was forced to resign as I could not find the time to discharge properly 
the duties of the position. 

I must now write more especially in relation to myself, a distasteful 
subject and one most difficult to present without being misunderstood. 

At the age of thirty-three I foimd myself at the head of a hospital 



I 



The First Specialist 203 

established for the treatment of certain surgical cases and, in addition, its 
wards were filled with women suffering from various diseases of the sex 
of which little or nothing was known, I was placed in the position of 
being a pioneer and the opportunity was thus given me, which had been 
afforded to no other man, to develop such extensive resources. The 
necessity for observing two conditions was impressed upon me at the 
beginning; I found I could not successfully do general practice and 
practice gynecology together. I thus, as a generally-educated physician 
became the first specialist, while there had been before me many Especial- 
ists, who from taste, or from the force of circumstances, had gradually 
given more attention to the treatment of some one special class of dis- 
eases than to another. Yet all of these physicians would attend an 
obstetrical case, or take charge of the treatment of any other condition, 
if it was advantageous to do so. I was at that time in a good general 
practice among some of the best people in the city, when I became con- 
vinced my work did not give as satisfactory results as formerly, and 
from some cause my surgical work was not always what it should have 
been. I promptly decided it was my duty to give up general practice and 
to attend no obstetrical cases, and this I promptly did, notwithstanding 
I thus lost the greater portion of my means of support. I also gained 
the mistrust of the profession generally, in thus, as it was claimed, putting 
myself on the level, as it were, with a quack, who from necessity held his 
position as to the treatment of one disease from want of the necessary 
training and knowledge to treat everything. No one seemed to recog- 
nize that the unusual hospital advantages which I had experienced, and 
this advantage alone, had fitted me for being a specialist. 

The other essential for successful practice was absolute cleanliness, 
but of this need I will again treat. 

Believing myself to be by nature as free from vanity as human nature 
will admit, it was natural that, under the circumstances, I should have 
been early impressed with the conviction I had before me the special work 
which I was sent into this world to develop. I believed I was in a position 
which could not have come to me through accident, nor through merit, 
as I had so far in life accomplished nothing to deserve it. I took to 
myself no credit for the faculty I possessed by which I was never at a 
loss as to the mode of procedure, nor for the successful results in operating 
on lesions which had previously baffled all surgical skill, and on cases, the 
nature of which I had never seen before. My success only increased 
my conviction as to the responsibility of my position for this special 
work. I cannot be accused of making a misstatement as to the readi- 
ness with which I operated, a fact established years ago, for on my 
success from the first case was based to a great degree my reputation 



204 Incidents of my Life 

as a surgical expert at the beginning, and before I had had any special 
experience. 

As it could never have been intended that the information I was 
rapidly gaining should remain with me alone, I naturally soon reaHzed 
that my chief duty was to teach, and to spread abroad, as far as possible, 
the knowledge to be gained in the hospital. 

I naturally shrank from lecturing and more from that than from any 
other duty, as I had never been able to utter half a dozen words con- 
secutively in public without suffering from stage fright. I, however, 
started three clinics a week and got a blackboard at hand, although I 
knew nothing whatever about drawing but what came to me naturally. 
At that time I was so driven with my work that I had no time for what 
is generally considered necessary, to study the peculiarities of a case 
beforehand, yet frequently I had never seen the special case to be operated 
upon when I took my seat. As I have stated, I was never conscious of 
being at a loss, and I would perform the operation and then go to the 
blackboard and demonstrate every feature as clearly as if I had been 
perfectly familiar with every step beforehand. I developed at once the 
faculty of being able to draw rapidly what I was describing, so that my 
hearers saw every step of the operation, and then the knowledge was 
impressed by having it described and again demonstrated by my drawing. 

These clinics were the first of the kind and I kept them up tmtil the 
end of my service. All who attended were supposed to be physicians 
already in practice, and who could make immediate use of what they 
saw and heard. I believe no one in the profession ever had the like 
opportimity afforded them for clinical teaching as I had, nor so great a 
number of listeners, who put in practice his teaching intelligently and 
without delay. A revolution was effected in an incredibly short period 
and these clinics made the Woman's Hospital known throughout the 
world. They gave a special reputation to the hospital which was unique, 
but one which has not been maintained since with original work by those 
who have succeeded me. One circumstance in particular I accepted as 
proof that I had made my work a success, as they were attended by 
physicians from all parts of the world, and this encouraged me to con- 
tinue my efforts at every sacrifice. So anxious was I to spread a knowl- 
edge of my experience to the utmost, that for years I gave private 
instruction, as it were, without compensation, but at a great pecuniary 
loss. Physicians would write that they had such a case imder their 
charge, on which they must operate, as it would be a loss of prestige for 
them to send the patient to me, or any one, and they would ask for 
special advice. I never hesitated to make the offer that if they would 
come to New York I would have some cases and demonstrate to them 



My Clinical Lectures 205 



all the steps of the operation, until they had acquired the necessary 
experience. If I had not had the desire to do this work for the love of 
God, I would never have continued my efforts for either the thanks or 
the credit I received in return for the sacrifice made. I cannot recall 
a single instance among hiindreds where any frank, honest, and public 
acknowledgment was ever made as to the source of their information. 
The successful result was always published as if it had been the work of 
an expert, and frequently credit was thus given to others for original 
work, who had been entirely ignorant of the subject before obtaining 
my assistance. Many made the knowledge gained during their visit to 
the Woman's Hospital the basis for a claim as a speciaHst, and the 
foundation for a successful practice. The common claim of those who 
seemed to have gained the least advantage was that they had studied 
under Dr. Emmet. I fear I was thus indirectly responsible for the mal- 
practice of many a quack. A few years ago I may have laid myself open 
to the charge of egotism, but now I write in no such spirit. Against my 
wishes, and only at the desire of others, I have undertaken to give a 
truthful history of my experience so far as the weakness and the conceit 
of human nature will permit. My life's work has long since ceased and 
fortunately I am able to realize that its history is no longer personally a 
part of my being. 

There was one dominant sentiment which ruled every action of my 
professional life, and one which cannot be understood by others, unless 
they are convinced that each and every one is sent into this world to save 
his or her soul, by making good use of the opportunities always presenting ; 
and this belief alone made me indifferent to gaining thanks or reputation. 
The same influence made me as indifferent to ingratitude, to calumny, 
and to every effort made to lessen my usefulness by underrating my 
work. All of these had but little effect on me, when my conscience 
prompted the assurance that I had faithfully discharged my duty and 
made the best use of my opportunities. 

I, therefore, do not write in any spirit of self-glory, but in the hope 
I will receive hereafter my reward and this will more than compensate 
me. In this spirit I have long since ceased to hold ill feeling toward 
any one living or dead. Those who in the flesh were the most worthy 
of my consideration have passed away, and they are now beyond my 
judgment, so that I can well afford to be charitable. 

It is now necessary for me again to refer to my experience at the 
University of Virginia to make clear some of the difficulties I managed 
in after-life to overcome, and to show that even with my limited tuition 
there it proved of the greatest benefit. Mathematics was the special 
stumbling-block in my career at the University, and I can now realize 



206 Incidents of my Life 

what advantage I would have gained from the aid of a tutor as is fvir- 
nished to-day at our universities. I certainly am not totally deficient 
in the mathematical instinct, although I have never learned the multipH- 
cation table, at least not having acquired it in early life, I have made no 
effort to accomplish it in later years, as by some mental process of my 
own I am able to get at what I need. After I had been some years in 
practice, and a married man with children, I managed to find time to 
go over a college course with private teachers. Mathematics did not 
interest me, as a whole, but I found the study of geometry very fascinating. 
That I learned to cipher is shown in the series of statistical tables which I 
prepared for my work on The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology on 
which special work I spent nearly two years, and made every calculation 
myself. These details go to show, I think, that defective teaching at 
the beginning is generally the cause of failure, even with the most stupid 
child. 

The course of lectures on Natural Philosophy, as delivered by Prof. 
William B. Rogers, was the only one which interested me. Consequently 
this line of study occupied much of my attention when years after I 
went over the college course. I thus learned to test every operation in 
plastic surgery by some principle of mechanics and from my knowledge 
of opposing forces to be overcome I was frequently able to judge of the 
value of any procedure devised by myself or another without having 
actually to perform the operation. In my experience no plastic opera- 
tion has ever been performed so as to be of any practical value until it 
cotild stand a mechanical test. I will state, in addition, my conviction 
that no one in plastic surgery has ever been a successful operator, nor able 
to repeat to advantage the successful work of others, without possessing 
a mechanical instinct. This statement will doubtless be criticised, but 
by no one able to recognize, after a surgical procedure, the difference 
between a successful result and a failure. 



Chapter XVI 



The most important public service, from a professional standpoint, ever rendered by me has 
now been forgotten — I was instrumental fifty years ago in improving the physical de- 
velopment of the young women of that generation and to the present time — I compared 
their condition to that of a well-cultivated celery stalk, a condition obtained by the 
exclusion of sunlight in its needed action on the skin and one of disease, by making the 
blood "watery" — Male patients were never attractive to me — Very successful with 
women and children — Difficulties in my private hospital — An interesting case cited — • 
The prevalence of hysteria produced a condition worse than that in a limatic asylum 
— An early contribution to surgery was to teach the necessity of cleanliness — My success 
in plastic surgery applied to the curing of vesico-vaginal fistula and in afterwards 
pointing out the cause — One of the most loathsome of injuries, and one then of frequent 
occurrence, is now seldom met with even in the simplest form — Introduced the scissors 
instead of the knife into surgery — History of the destruction of the Government archives, 
moved from Washington on the approach of the English during the War of 1812 — De- 
stroyed to make room for an army bakery during the Civil War — History of the destruc- 
tion at Halifax, Nova Scotia — Of the papers of Major John Andr6, who was Adjutant- 
General of the English Army — Also the loss of Aaron Burr's papers — A great loss to the 
world, as Burr was never understood and tmjustly treated — Persecuted by Hamilton who 
forced the duel on him — Francis L. Hoffman, a friend of many years — Meeting for the 
first time Theo. Bailey Myers — Our close intimacy — Our historical collections are to 
remain in close relation and to occupy adjoining alcoves in the Consolidated Library, 
New York — Some notice of an old friend, David McN. Stauffer — Our relations of years 
broken up by his marriage — My advice to his wife — His work on the early engravers of 
this country. 




T is a remarkable circumstance, that what I myself 
consider to have been the greatest and the most far- 
reaching professional service ever rendered by me 
to the human race should have been forgotten, and 
be unknown to the present generation. 

I was the first to offer a protest against the 
general method then followed with young girls, as 
they were passing into womanhood, and to have been the direct agent 
through my patients in bringing about a revolution throughout the 
country in the physical development of the mothers of the present 
generation. This may seem to be a big claim for any one individual to 
make, and yet it is true and can be substantiated. I now never see a 

207 



208 Incidents of my Life 

young girl with a deep chest, head and shoulders taller than her mother, 
with big hips and a sturdy step, but I feel like congratulating her on 
having escaped a more barbarous martyrdom, with far more evil con- 
sequences to the sufferer and others, than the binding and arrest of 
development in the feet of the Chinese women. 

When I had gotten my private hospital in working order, as early as 
1862, I was surprised to find so large a proportion of my patients were 
anaemic women in their adolescence, undersized, and with their nervous 
systems in a shattered condition from overstudy, and especially from 
prolonged oractice in music and singing, to the absolute neglect of their 
physical development. A yotmg girl was tortured into being made 
"ladylike," and in shaping her waist into a form God never intended 
any woman to have who was to exercise her province in populating the 
world. 

Of coiu-se every physician then in practice recognized the existing 
condition of anaemia, and after exhausting every effort and failing to 
change the condition by the administration of iron and tonics, he 
would gradually abandon the case. I can now recall how many of 
these young girls among the so-called better classes became chronic 
invalids and bedridden, while their somewhat stronger sisters who 
escaped at puberty had not much more in store for them in after-life, 
from their first experience in child-bearing. 

By examining the blood with the microscope, I foimd there existed 
comparatively but a small number of red blood corpuscles in all these 
cases of anaemia. By a process of exclusion I soon came to the conclusion 
that the condition was due to a want of sunlight, as every woman care- 
fully covered up all portions of her body by clothing, gloves, and veil. 
In making the girl "ladylike" this precaution of excluding the beneficial 
effects of sunlight produced the diseased and tmnatural result, as with 
a well-cultivated celery stalk, which is an abnormal condition, where it is 
made tender and watery by being buried up in the earth to exclude all 
sunlight. These poor girls were subject to constant attacks of hysteria, 
or "the vapors," as their grandmothers termed the condition, coming 
on from the slightest provocation. In my private hospital I was 
obliged to keep two or three supernumeraries who were known as "fit 
nurses," whose business was to hold these patients during convulsions, 
to guard them against any injury. 

There are many medical men now in practice who have never seen 
such attacks of hysterical convulsions which, at that time, were of almost 
hourly occurrence in my private hospital. 

I had rooms arranged on the top of the building where these patients, 
in a nude condition, would lie hour after hour, for days and sometimes 



Treatment of Young Women 209 

for weeks, with the skin exposed to the action of sunlight, receiving no 
other treatment than frequent rubbing of the body, with some imguent, 
to improve nutrition and bring the blood to the surface. This course 
had to be continued until there was a siifhcient increase of the blood 
corpuscles to warrant an attempt at building these cases up by the 
use of iron, tonic, and a course of proper exercise, without risk of 
deranging the digestion and causing other disturbances. 

Beyond what might be termed a picturesque effort to play battledore 
and shuttlecock, or the taking of a short and stately walk once in the 
twenty-four hours, no other exercise was attempted. Shortly after I 
began to call attention to this condition some one introduced the game of 
croquet as I was told at the time in consequence of my teaching, and 
soon after the tennis-coturt came into use for women, which was certainly 
an innovation. 

The number of young women suffering from causes due directly 
to neglect of their physical development has been reduced at the present 
time to a very small number, in comparison with what existed sixty years 
ago. On the other hand, with the physical development of the young 
men it would seem that both the average height and weight has been 
reduced by cigarette-smoking, although I have nothing more than my 
observation to prove the assertion that the habit is becoming as serious 
a one as the use of opium with the Chinese. 

A revolution was accomplished in less than ten or fifteen years, by 
impressing every mother coming under my care with the responsibility 
resting upon her to give due thought to the welfare of her daughters, 
and for her to enlist the aid of every mother within the circle of her 
acquaintance. 

As every edition of my book on The Principles and Practice of Gyne- 
cology was reprinted in England, and the work was translated into 
German and French, there was probably not a physician in practice 
throughout the world, making any effort to inform himself, who did not 
become familiar with my views, and to some extent he put them into 
practice. But what I taught was so seff-evident and simple that, as is 
generally the case, the views were accepted without question, put into 
practice and their source soon forgotten, as if they had always been 
familiar in practice to the public. 

Any of my readers who may be interested in this subject will find in 
the first chapter of my book sufficient to fully verify all I have claimed, 
although I have not entered there fully into details, as at the time of 
writing the revolution had been already accomplished and there was no 
need to do more. 

In private practice I cannot claim to have had much in common with 



210 Incidents of my Life 

my male patients. I found it difficult to keep up my interest in a nervous 
and complaining man, who was seldom willing to wait patiently for the 
usual course, but seemed in fear, although he might not always express it, 
that there was something in his peculiar case which had been overlooked 
and might cause a serious termination. To attend a sick child was my 
delight, as they could never mislead me by drawing on their imagination 
as to their symptoms, and it was always comparatively easy for me to 
detect the cause. I had a remarkable influence over a young child. 
Many times I have, in early hospital and private practice, taken a child 
from the arms of a nurse or mother, exhausted after a prolonged effort to 
quiet it, and have handed the child back in a few moments fast asleep. 

The practice in my private hospital, when I commenced treating 
patients there, had much in common with a lunatic asylum, and many 
times to overcome outside influence, exerted by friends, I have had to 
make a great effort to get a patient sufficiently isolated for her to become 
as a child in my hands. In some respects the power gained was not 
unlike that obtained over a wild beast, except that in one case the domi- 
nation would be due to fear, while with my patient, as a rule, it wotild 
be confidence in my skill, with the desire to please me and to merit my 
approval from the effort she would make to gain her self-control. I have 
at times been depressed with the responsibility attending the blind 
influence I have often been able to gain over nervous women under my 
care. 

About 1867 a yotmg woman from Boston was brought to me on a 
stretcher, and she had been confined to her bed for some four years, and 
had become a skeleton in the house, from the amount of attention she 
required, as she was unable to feed herself or move without help, 
and could only sleep at night with the gas burning brightly, and with 
some member of the family to sit up with her. Moreover, she was so 
wilful that to annoy and mortify those present she would commit the 
grossest breach of good-breeding with a fiendish delight. Her condition 
was worse than that of insanity. Her chief amusement was to wet a 
portion of the sheet in her mouth, then bite a hole in it, or tear it with her 
finger-nails and then suddenly stick her big toe in it and tear the sheet 
from top to bottom. She was a daughter of a noted lawyer, and prob- 
ably had never received the slightest instruction or check from either 
father or mother. Her father in giving me the history of her case stated 
that he thought I ought to know it, but "the fact was before she got 
sick," he thought, "^^e had been fussing too much with this God business!'' 
I foimd that neither she nor any member of her family had ever been in 
a chtirch (at least, during her life), but her mother before marriage had 
been a "Brownite," whatever that belief might constitute! Have we 



An Interesting Case 211 

not missionary work enough in our midst without there being a need for 
our missionaries to seek the antipodes? 

I soon satisfied myself that this girl had nothing the matter with her, 
beyond the injury to her general condition from the long confinement to 
her bed, but was sadly in need of moral training ; and nothing but a keen 
sense of duty prompted me to undertake as unpromising a task as ever 
fell to my lot, for she was repulsive in appearance, and there was not a 
redeeming feature in her case, bodily or morally. 

Her father, mother, aunt, and several other members of the family 
were anxiously waiting to hear the result of my investigation. They 
had come prepared to spend the winter, with the exception of her father, 
and to be on the spot while the patient was under treatment. This cir- 
cumstance embarrassed me more than the condition of the patient, but 
I quickly determined on the course to be followed. I told the father that 
I had foimd out the difficulty, but that it was not necessary I should 
enter into any further particulars, and to enable me to carry out my 
plan, he and his family must return home by the next train, and without 
taking leave of the daughter. If they did this, I felt certain that I could 
cure her, and if unwilling, they must seek the advice of some one else. As 
I went on attending to my business, they remained staring at me in a 
state of surprise and great indignation, and did not make up their minds 
as to the cotirse to pursue until the last moment, in time to take the train. 
I went up to see her afterward, and found her lying with her eyes closed 
as I had left her. I remarked, "Well, you are now fairly in the hands 
of the Philistines, for your father, mother, and aunt, and all of them have 
returned home without even bidding you good-bye, and I have now got 
you entirely in my power." I saw that I had made an impression, but she 
soon recovered herself. I told her all in the house were but parts, of a 
machine with no thought beyond carrying out my instructions. That 
I was a very devil when roused, and bade her look at me well and see if 
she did not think I was fearfully in earnest. I noticed that her eyelids 
slightly parted, as curiosity tempted her to see if I was really what I 
represented myself to be. I continued, and stated that as long as I 
had my own way I was as gentle as a lamb, but I would give her fair 
notice that she would live to regret it if she ever deviated from my 
instructions. 

"To-morrow," I said, "at ten o'clock, I will begin to see the patients 
in my office, and you must be dressed at that time. I will call for you, 
and if you are not dressed I will play the lady's-maid, and with no light 
hand, for it will be a very busy part of the day with me. I shall remove 
that nightgown and put on your flannels," etc. I then slowly enumer- 
ated, in order, every article of female dress I could think of. This was 



Incidents of my Life 



too much for her, and she opened her eyes, saying, "You are a brute, sir." 
I directed that her meals should be placed alongside of her bed, that she 
might feed herself, but I beHeve she ate nothing. She was told until she 
could be civil she would be left to herself as far as possible. At nine 
o'clock her gaslight was turned out, and she was heard sobbing several 
times in the night, as the nurse passed back and forth in the passage- 
way. 

In the morning, I learned from the nurse that she evidently intended 
to have it out, and that nothing could be done with her but to leave her 
alone. At ten o'clock I entered her room, but her courage had failed her 
at the last moment on hearing my footsteps, and she was wildly trying 
to pull on a stocking under the bed-clothing. I saw at a glance that I 
had conquered (at least, I thought I had). I spoke to her kindly, bade 
her lie down, and said that I was glad to see she had made up her mind 
to help me, and as she was still fatigued from her journey she could rest 
tintil the next day, but that she must then be up. 

No sooner had I left the room than she had made up her mind she 
would conquer. She began by spitting in one nurse's face, biting one in 
the shoulder, and nearly taking off the finger of another. She was put 
in a straight-jacket, when she began to scream at the top of her voice, so 
that the door was closed and she was left alone. I went in several times 
and tried to talk to her, but she only made a louder outcry. When 
lunch was taken up to her and an attempt was made to feed her, she 
made every effort to spit in the face of the nurse, so no attempt was 
made imtil next day to give her any food. Late in the evening I received 
a telegram that the mother had died suddenly on reaching home. She 
probably had some heart trouble, and the indignation I unfortimately 
roused when I would not sit down and talk the case over with the family 
for an hour or two, and my insistence that they shoiild return home, 
doubtless had a bad effect on her, but I was never able to get any details 
of her case. I went in to tell the young woman, thinking that it might 
make some impression on her, but she seemed perfectly indifferent. 
We went through a struggle on her part of tooth and nail for a week, 
during which time I had her dressed by force every day, and often before 
she could be gotten out of the room she would tear into shreds every 
particle of clothing she had on her body. I had her taken down to the 
parlor, and when her turn came she was carried into the office, where I 
devoted about twenty minutes every day to a good talk, hoping by what 
I might say to make some impression on her. 

One morning I went into her room, and not finding the nurse there, 
I was going out to call her, when the young woman for the first time 
addressed me personally, with "Why do you not cure me as you do the 



An Interesting Case 213 

others?" My answer was: "My poor child, I am almost in despair 
in regard to your case. I certainly have done everything in my power 
to obtain some influence over you, and I have thought seriously to-day of 
writing to your father to take you away." In a kindly tone of voice for 
her, she said, "What am I to do?" My answer was: "I do not know, 
unless you get out of that bed and on your knees ask God to give you 
grace to help me and those about you in our efforts." I was nearly out 
of the door when she cried out, "Do you mean it?" My answer was, 
"Yes," when the wind slammed the door. It seemed as if I had lost my 
temper with her, and my first impulse was to return and make an expla- 
nation, but a moment's reflection satisfied me that she would mistake 
my purpose. 

During the day she was quite friendly with the nvirses, and the next 
morning I found her dressed with their aid and waiting for me. She met 
me with a smile, and said, "I did what you told me and I want you to get 
a priest for me, as I am sure your religion must be a good one when it 
has made you so patient." 

I said, "No; if you were a Protestant, as you naturally should be, 
I would gladly send for any clergyman you wanted, but I do not com- 
bine proselytism with the practice of medicine." 

In a few days she was out riding in a carriage ; soon she was able to 
walk out, and at the end of a month she returned home well. She 
became very much attached to me in a few days, and I never had a more 
tractable patient. 

When this case came to me there was but little more than the instincts 
of the animal left for me to work upon, for she was not moved through 
any sense other than fear, as she acknowledged afterward that she 
thought I looked as if I would spank her. I was aided through the 
helpless condition she felt herself in, alone among strangers, and through 
fear of punishment she was conquered. Such a case would have been 
hopeless in any effort to have treated her at home, or with any different 
surroundings. After she had once yielded, and all were then kind to 
her, it was not necessary for me to tell her to make the exertion, for she 
knew that I wished it, and this excited a desire on her part to prove her- 
self worthy of my confidence. In a kind manner I quietly pointed out 
to her from time to time certain serious defects which it was necessary for 
her to correct. The effort then made by her to carry out a purpose in 
overcoming her temper, and subjecting herself to this self-discipline, 
brought out all the good traits of her character. 

I refer to this case in my book, but I have elaborated it somewhat, 
so that the reader might be able to form some idea of a portion of the 
work I had to deal with, day after day, and for so many years of my 



214 Incidents of my Life 

life. The strain on my nervous system for such a length of time, together 
with that attending the performing of so large a number of the most 
difficult operations a surgeon could ever be called on to perform, influ- 
enced the moulding of my character, and through the grace given me 
I was taught perseverance and indomitable self-reliance. This case has 
impressed me the more in consequence of the after-history, it being the 
only one, to my personal knowledge, where I was the direct or indirect 
cause of conversion to the Catholic Church. 

This young woman on returning home at once saw Father Fulton, 
who was then in charge of the Jesuit College in Boston. He instructed 
her and received her into the Church. On informing her father of the 
step she had taken, he turned her out of his house without a penny. She 
obtained the means and came to New York, where some friends got her 
sewing to do and other employment to afford her a subsistence. About 
two years after she learned her father had suffered from an attack of 
apoplexy, was paralyzed both in limbs and speech, and in this helpless 
condition he was left entirely in the charge of his servants. She imme- 
diately returned to take charge of him, but he resented her attention 
with paroxysms of rage whenever she came near him. She, however, 
persevered, and in about a year he was able to get about, but he never 
fully recovered his health. Through her influence, he became a most 
humble and devoted Catholic, and died in the faith. She soon followed 
him, having sacrificed her own health from the continued confinement 
necessary in caring for her father during several years, when he was 
helpless. A good and holy woman was called at her death to receive 
her reward. 

In fifty years we have so far advanced in civilization that such cases, 
then so frequent, of nervous derangement resulting from neglect of the 
physical development of young girls, in the effort to make them "lady- 
like," or tender and "white blooded" as a celery stalk, are now no longer 
found. 

I can claim that my earliest important contribution to surgery was 
practising and teaching the great necessity for cleanliness with regard to 
both patient and instruments, and this I taught to a degree the necessity 
for which none of my professional friends appreciated. My work on 
gynaecology gives full evidence of many remarkable results obtained in 
abdominal surgery with the assistance of Margaret Brennan, the nurse, 
at a time when we had nothing but the skilful use of ordinary turpentine 
soap and hot water for preparing the patient or the instruments. All 
who are familiar with my teaching at the Woman's Hospital from the 
earliest period, have heard me reiterate in my clinics as an aphorism: 
" The death warrant of many a patient is carried under the finger nails oj the 



Success in Plastic Surgery 215 

operator.'' Before I ever heard of the existence of Lister, I taught this, 
and yet no man has ever appreciated more than I have the value of his 
work in educating the world as to the importance of asepsis. 

When the first Woman's Hospital building was opened, under my 
charge as Surgeon-in-Chief, in 1868, at Forty-ninth Street and Park 
Avenue, New York, I had a steam or Russian bath in operation for the 
purpose of cleansing and in this room every case was prepared for a lapar- 
otomy by several baths, and with the free use of turpentine soap. In 
1872, from misrepresentation to the Board of Governors by medical men 
outside who wished to destroy my reputation, and get a position in the 
hospital, the Board of Governors saw fit to change the system of manage- 
ment from a Surgeon-in-Chief to a Medical Board. When the new 
organization had been perfected, none of my colleagues appreciated the 
necessity for any such preparation for an operation as I had employed 
for years. At the first meeting of the Medical Board all voted against 
me when it was decided by them to tear out the Russian bath to make a 
reception-room for the patients of the outdoor clinic. 

My original work in connection with gyneecology and many surgical 
procedures is on record among my numerous writings, where the student 
can obtain any needed information on this point so that it is not neces- 
sary for me in a work of this kind to enter into further details. No por- 
tion of my work, however, ever gave me the same satisfactory assurance, 
by the results, that I had not lived in vain as the history of certain lesions 
to which I will now refer. 

Dr. Sims made it possible by his teaching to close every vesico-vaginal 
fistula whenever it was possible to bring the edges of the opening together 
free from tension. But I developed the plastic method by which the 
cases then considered by Dr. Sims incurable, in consequence of the 
great loss of tissue, were finally cured. Dr. Sims, after going abroad at 
the beginning of the Civil War, never had the opportunity to advance 
beyond the work which he described in his remarkable paper read before 
the New York Academy of Medicine previous to his departure. I 
afterward cured all the supposed incurable cases sent me, and himted 
up all the cases which had been refused admission to the hospital in the 
past, but I found it difficult to transmit my experience to others, as so 
few had the necessary mechanical skill. This would have been a lament- 
able result but for the fortunate circumstance that I was eventually able 
to demonstrate the cause, and by the removal of the cause the injury has 
now become of rare occurrence and simple in character. I presented a 
paper at the meeting of the American Gynaecological Society in 1879, at 
Philadelphia, and this was published in the Transactions for that year, 
showing the cause of the injury and the mode of preventing it. This 



2i6 Incidents of my Life 

paper revolutionized the then accepted obstetrical practice of the world, 
and ergot itself has ceased to be used. Over fifty years ago this frightful 
injury was so common in occurrence that the Woman's Hospital was 
established, as I have already stated, for its cure, and now if a case occurs 
it is almost always the result of neglect. 

I introduced the use of scissors into the surgical work of gynaecology 
as a substitute for the knife, and I devised all the different forms now in 
use, although others, ignorant of my work, have gone over the same 
ground since. Without the aid of these instruments there would have 
been but little advance made in plastic surgery, or in the cure of the 
injury I have just referred to. 

Shortly after the beginning of the Civil War one of my patients, 
already mentioned, and wife of one of the assistant secretaries in Wash- 
ington, returned home on a visit. When she came back to me she 
showed me a dozen or more letters, written by Washington, Franklin, 
and several other well-known officers, written chiefly from the winter- 
quarters at Valley Forge. I expressed my surprise that she should have 
them, as they all related to the public service and belonged in the Govern- 
ment archives. She told me that on her way to the Capitol a few days be- 
fore she had to pass between a- dozen or more tobacco hogsheads filled 
with papers so that they hung over the sides. Seeing the name of Wash- 
ington on a letter, she asked the foreman of some work going on if she 
could have it. She was told yes, and that she might take as many as she 
wished as it was a lot of rubbish which was to be destroyed. I immedi- 
ately wrote to her husband and learned from him that in making room in 
the basement of the Capitol for a bakery, to bake bread for the Army in 
the neighborhood, these hogsheads of papers had been removed and, on the 
report that the papers were of no importance, they were all one night 
dumped into the Potomac River. On further investigation it was found 
that these were the Government archives which Mr. Madison, as Presi- 
dent, had hastily packed in these hogsheads when the English were ad- 
vancing on Washington during the War of 1 8 12, and were sent into the 
country for their preservation. After the English had burned the city 
and had been driven off, these papers were brought back to Washing- 
ton, and when the Capitol had been rebuilt they had been temporarily 
stored in one of the basement rooms and had been forgotten ! 

As a collector of autographs, I have known of several other instances 
where papers of the greatest historical value have been ruthlessly de- 
stroyed. About the same time, the late Sir Edward Cunard of New York, 
and head of the Cunard Steamship Company, gave me three letters 
written by Major John Andre, while Adjutant of the English Army 
under the command of Sir Henry Clinton. In connection with his busi- 



Papers of Major Andre 217 

ness, Sir Edward was on a visit to Halifax, N. S., and called to see some 
gentleman late one Sunday evening. After some delay, he was shown 
into a back room where he found his friend in his shirt sleeves and very 
much heated, before a large fire. He apologized for keeping him waiting, 
but he stated he had been nearly all day burning a lot of papers which 
had been stored in one of the upper rooms since the American Revolution 
when his grandfather had had some connection with the English Army. 
There were three letters remaining on the hearth when the burning was 
interrupted, and Cunard seeing the signature of Andre put his foot on 
them as his friend was about to seize them with the tongs. He asked to 
keep them, with the intention of giving them to me. The regret was 
expressed that he had not known of the trash being of any interest to 
any one, as he "had burned up thousands of letters in the barrels, signed 
by this man, Andre, who could have done nothing else but write his 
name"! 

When New York was evacuated after peace had been declared, many 
thousands of Loyahsts left the cotmtry in transports and settled in Nova 
Scotia, where the English Government assigned to each a portion of the 
public lands. After Andre's death no doubt his official papers were 
placed in charge of some one to be transmitted to England, but in the 
confusion which must have attended the evacuation and the removal of 
the troops, some of which on leaving New York were stationed at Halifax, 
these papers were landed there to be forwarded at some future time and 
were forgotten. 

One of these letters was about the last official letter Andre could have 
written, and to the commanding officer of the block-house above Paulus 
Hook, and now Bull's Ferry. This position had been attacked a short 
time before by a party of Americans under the command of General 
Anthony Wayne, who failed in carrying the position for want of artillery. 
The Americans, however, carried off to the American Army a large lot of 
cattle which was the subject of the poem by Major Andre, called the 
"Cow Chase," in which he wrote: 

"And now I 've closed my epic strain 
I tremble as I show it, 
Lest this same warrior- drover Wayne 
Shotild ever catch the poet. " 

The last canto of which was published in Rivington's Gazette, New 
York, on the day Andre was captured at Tarrytown, while returning 
from Haverstraw, where he had met General Arnold and arranged for 
the treasonable surrender of West Point to the English. Andre was 
tried and condemned to death as a spy by a board of officers, but 



218 Incidents of my Life 

Wayne, one of the board, could have known nothing of the poem at the 
time. 

In the destruction of pubHc papers, the loss is often great from an 
historical point, but the hiatus could generally be filled from other 
sources, as it was the general custom of the time to keep a copy of every 
letter written in an official capacity. 

But the saddest instance I have ever known was in the destruction 
of Aaron Burr's papers — a man who lived before his time, misjudged, 
and more sinned against than sinning; who, suffering from injustice 
during the greater portion of his life, was too proud ever to give an 
explanation in vindication of his course, and finally all his papers, con- 
taining much in relation to himself, were destroyed, leaving the world in 
ignorance as to his purpose through life. 

Dtiring the Civil War the price of rags for paper-making advanced 
to an enormous price, and consequently all old paper became valuable 
to regrind for making other paper. Burr lived for many years in the 
first house on the north side of Fulton Street from Broadway, although he 
happened to have died on Staten Island, where in his old age and poverty 
he was being looked after by some friends. After his death, this house 
was purchased by a man who kept there afterward a small eating-house, 
and his son and grandson after him, I have been told, carried on the 
same business. In one of the garret rooms were boxes fiUed with Burr's 
papers, and as the room probably was not needed, they were left undis- 
turbed and their existence unknown. An old-paper dealer is always a 
valuable acquaintance for a collector, and during a casual visit to one he 
expressed his regret at having been too late in securing the Burr papers. 
They had been sold to a paper- maker in Connecticut, and were of suffi- 
cient bulk, after being removed from the boxes, to nearly fill the hold of a 
sloop. The factory was immediately visited, but too late, as the last 
portion of the papers had been ground up the day before without any one 
having been able to see them. In these, doubtless, was the material 
which would have fully vindicated Burr's course. He was a patriot 
during the Revolution, and he served throughout the greater part of the 
war. His connection with Blennerhassett was never understood. That 
his judgment was correct in the necessity, as he claimed, for this country 
to obtain control of the Mississippi River, was proved by the purchase of 
the whole Louisiana country. Hamilton feared Burr's influence and 
was jealous of his eminence as a lawyer. To-day we can dispassionately 
divest the evidence of all political prejudice and it is shown beyond 
question that Hamilton forced the duel on Burr, with the intention of 
getting him out of the way if possible, and Burr happened to have fired 
before Hamilton. 



Friendship with Hoffman and Myers 219 

Shortly before the termination of the Civil War I had occasion to 
visit the Springier House on the west side of Union Square, above Four- 
teenth Street, and which had been recently opened. I there met Mr. 
Francis L. Hoffman, who had married a daughter of the founder of the 
Bradstreet Co., the first of the commercial agencies for rating the 
standard of all business men throughout the country. A very unpopular 
business it was at first, as one based apparently upon an unwarrantable 
spying into private affairs. But time has fully vindicated the business, 
and the system has proved of the greatest value to the business world. 

Mr. Hoffman introduced me to the gentleman with whom he had 
been conversing, and I thus met for the first time Mr. Theodorus Bailey 
Myers, whom I had known by reputation for several years and often 
wished to meet on account of our similarity of tastes, but the opportunity 
had not occurred before. This was the beginning of a longer and closer 
intimacy between Hoffman, Myers, and myself, than is usual between 
individuals having no blood relation in cornmon, and it was only termi- 
nated by their death. These two gentlemen had a remarkable knowl- 
edge of historical detail and especially of all in relation to American 
history. For years we generally spent Sunday afternoon together, and 
this was particularly true in reference to Hoffman and myself, while 
they frequently visited me several times in the evenings during the week. 
I was favored, as my library occupied the whole second floor in one of the 
houses of my private hospital adjoining my residence, where we were 
quiet with roomy quarters, and where the coming and going could take 
place at any hour of the night without disturbing any one. When we 
three met together with all the necessary books for reference at hand, we 
probably accomplished in a meeting more than any historical society, as 
each one would be familiar with details unknown to the others. Our 
reading and investigation were not always on the same line, and by thus 
drawing out these details we educated each other, and in the end each 
became possessed of a most extended knowledge as to detail bearing 
upon the history of this country. As every one is likely to develop a 
taste in a special line during the course of his studies, we were mutually 
benefited by becoming familiar with many facts we would never have 
acquired otherwise. 

Ultimately, Mr. Hoffman was sent to take charge of the Philadelphia 
branch of his business, and thus terminated a relation, the recollection of 
which never recurred to my memory without increasing my heart's action 
with pleasure. After Mr. Hoffman changed his residence and from his 
death shortly after my intimate relation with Mr. Myers became closer 
than is usual between brothers, and it was seldom I did not have a visit 
from him during some portion of every day. 



Incidents of my Life 



I had already begun to arrange my collection into different series, 
and he was making every effort to supply the defects in his collection, and 
to adopt my system. We thus became as interested in each other's col- 
lection as if it were part of his own. As I had been years longer in form- 
ing mine than he had been, I was able to supply many of his wants, much 
to the pleasure and interest of each of us. In 1871 we travelled abroad 
for seven or eight months together with General G. W. Cullum, as I will 
relate shortly. But soon his health began to fail, w^hich caused many 
intervals in our meeting, as he went abroad with the hope of regaining 
his health. At length his death came and with it a blank in my life for 
companionship, which has never been filled. 

Mr. Myers's collection passed into the hands of his son, Lieut.-Com- 
mander Theodorus Bailey Myers Mason, who took the name of his 
maternal grandfather, an old New York merchant. Mr, Mason was a 
most promising officer in the U. S. Navy, but died in early middle life 
while he was in active service. After his death, the widow, his mother 
and sister, Mrs. Julian James, who were joint heirs, presented this 
remarkable and interesting collection, in many respects, to the Con- 
solidated Library of New York. But, before it passed into the possession 
of the library, I had the satisfaction of being able to carry out many of 
Mr. Myers's wishes, and as a labor of love I arranged the whole collec- 
tion in different series, and directed the binding of the whole. The 
collection contained an unusually good set of the signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence and a most complete set of the autographs of the 
Dutch authorities in connection with the City of New York. 

Shortly after our acquaintance, Mr. Myers decided to give his atten- 
tion to collecting as far as possible on different lines from those I had 
already formed. Our close relation in life is to be maintained for the 
future as I learn that the "Emmet Collection" from the Lenox Library 
is to be placed in an adjoining alcove with the "Myers Collection," in the 
Consolidated Library, so that the two will essentially form a single and 
unique collection, and one unequalled as a whole in any collection. 

I am iinable to recall the circumstances under which I first met Mr. 
David McN. Stauffer, who, being, as I thought, a confirmed old bachelor, 
I had often congratulated myself with having secured for life a most con- 
genial companion. For several years before he had any one to regulate 
his "time and going," we were on more intimate terms than I had ever 
been with any other of my old friends. As he and his good wife are living 
I am unable to express here in appropriate terms more than my kind 
feelings for both. 

Mr. Stauffer served through the Civil War. Leaving home at an age 
when most boys are at school, he enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment, 



David McN. Stauffer 221 

and as soon as his term expired he entered the U. S. Navy, and at the end 
of the war was in command of one of the small iron-clad vessels then in 
use. I must have met him very soon after the termination of the war, 
and he proved a most genial and talented companion. To his good taste 
I was indebted for many valuable suggestions while arranging my col- 
lection, and to his ready pen and brush for many a water-color or pen- 
drawing of some unique portrait or view, which now forms a prominent 
feature in the "Emmet Collection." 

He was my companion on several trips abroad, and particularly in an 
extended one with my eldest son. Dr. John Duncan Emmet. We visited 
Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, Turkey, about the Black Sea, through the 
Crimea, the Caucasus, and over the mountains into Russia. We had 
intended to visit Persia but were prevented from the prevalence of 
cholera about the Caspian Sea. This tour was made during the sum- 
mer and we remained in perfect health throughout. I recall a most 
enjoyable trip in a launch down the Suez Canal on July 226., with a 
more bearable temperature than is often experienced in New York at 
that season. 

My trouble began when Mr. Stauffer and a number of other engi- 
neers visited the Isthmus to determine the proper route for the Panama 
Canal when this question was first agitated. Among those who accom- 
panied the expedition was Mr. G. H. Scribner, of Yonkers, and his 
daughter. On their return the steamer was wrecked on the Roncador 
reef in the Caribbean Sea, where the Kearsarge, which sank the Con- 
federate Cruiser Alabama, off the coast of France, was also wrecked and 
paid tribute to the dangerous currents of that neighborhood by leaving 
her frame there. 

It seemed that among a number of passengers with the crew of the 
steamer, Mr. Stauffer was the only one who could steer or sail a boat. 
Through his direction, chiefly, the passengers were landed and a stifhcient 
supply of stores secured before the boat went to pieces, and to his 
knowledge as an engineer the people were indebted to his finding 
the only source of fresh water they could obtain except from a passing 
shower. 

When I learned that he had become engaged to be married to Miss 
Scribner, as the result of their experience on the Roncador reef, I 
felt at first indignant, as if I had a grievance and that my friend 
was likely to make the mistake of his life. But when I met the young 
lady, I could do no less than congratulate both, as I felt they were most 
fortunate. 

At the marriage reception I had a confidential talk with the bride, 
taking the privilege of an old man whose interest in the happiness of both 



Incidents of my Life 



herself and her husband was sincere. I told her that their future hap- 
piness must rest entirely with herself, that her husband's habits had 
already been formed and that she must yield and conform her tastes and 
habits to his, or that nothing but unhappiness could be in store for her, 
I stated, at her age it was but natural that she would wish to go out to 
dinner, the theatre, or somewhere every evening, while her husband 
would be tired from his business, and would wish to seek his pipe and get 
to work in his "den" on some of his hobbies for recreation. That she 
must have patience, and I would advise her at the end of the first dinner 
at home to take her husband's arm and lead him off to his "den," then 
take a seat by him after he had started his pipe, and make an effort to 
understand what he was at, and take an interest in his hobby. If she 
did this it would not be long before the suggestion would come from him 
to accept some of the invitations to dinner. She acted on my advice, 
and was soon deeply interested in adding extra illustrations to some 
book which she fancied, and the result has been that a more congenial 
couple I have never known, I told her a story of a gentleman of wealth 
who lived in England during the third decade of the eighteenth century, 
whose wife was much younger than himself. She gave thought only to 
her own tastes and took no interest in those of her husband. Her fault- 
finding was incessant at his spending so much time and money on a 
hobby in which he had been interested for a number of years. He was 
taken suddenly ill and on being informed that he had but a short time 
to live and not sufficient to arrange his affairs, he sent for his wife, and 
told her she had made his life a wretched one for years by her continued 
scolding and fault-finding without ever taking the trouble to inform her- 
self as to the work in which he had been engaged ; that he had not the 
time to make a proper disposition of his work, but would leave that to 
her, and if she did not do so, he certainly would make the remainder of 
her life a miserable one if it was possible for him to return after his death 
for that purpose. After the funeral she turned the key in the door of 
her husband's working-room and threw it in some drawer, and dismissed 
the whole subject from her mind. At length she was suddenly prompted 
by curiosity to see on what "the fool" had been so long wasting his time 
and money. The result was that she devoted the remainder of her life 
and a large part of her wealth in completing the work. He had written 
a work to show the gradual development of art in England, and had 
collected the original engravings to illustrate it. She eventually deposited 
the collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England, where it is still 
one of the chief attractions. 

After being many years occupied in his research, extending from our 
first meeting, Mr. Stauffer completed a'work of two volumes, giving an 



Work on Early Engravers 223 

accotint of the early engravers in this country, which was pubHshed by 
the Grolier Club about two years ago, and it is accepted as the authority 
on this special subject — an interesting incident as to pursuits, and in 
connection with the story I related years ago to his young wife. 



Chapter XVII 



While passing St. Stephen's Church during a Mission, I was attracted by curiosity to enter — 
The most important step in my life — Detailed account and my reason .for becoming a 
Catholic — Had married a Catholic — -But was perfectly indifferent and had not been in- 
fluenced — Before marriage I had decided that if there existed any authority for Christian- 
ity it could only rest with the Catholic Church — But its teachings did not appeal to me 
as I was not willing to accept things on faith which I could not understand— Sermon 
by Rev. Fr. W. H. Gross on the mysteries of the Church, and how they were to be ac- 
cepted — For the first time I understood the subject and my duty— I found it the duty of 
every one to investigate and to ask for grace in the proper spirit — I returned to the 
■ church with my wife and was received into the Catholic Church in an hour, as I did not 
need any instructions — This occurrence took place over forty years ago and to this day I 
have never had the slightest doubt in my mind, or ceased to return thanks for the blessings 
conferred on me — Wrote a surgical work in 1868 — For which I was made a member of 
the Berlin Obstetrical Society, the first professional honor I ever received abroad — Meet- 
ing of the American Gynaecological Society in Philadelphia, 1878, when I pointed out 
the cause of the frightful injury of vesico-vaginal fistula, and how it was to be remedied 
— Some reflections given on the present political situation and changes which have taken 
place within my experience — Overworked and was obliged to go abroad for seven months' 
rest — Accompanied by my friends, Mr. Bailey Myers and Gen. Cullum — How Mr. 
Myers was misled by a young woman — He possessed in common with Pickwick a want of 
the bump of locality and got into the wrong room — Sight-seeing in Ireland — Crossed to 
Glasgow — ^Went up the Caledonian Canal — ^Visited Fort George, Inverness, where my 
grandfather was imprisoned — Poverty of the Catholics at Oben, Scotland. 




HORTLY before the close of the war, on my way to 
the hospital, where I was due at two o'clock, I 
happened to pass St. Stephen's Church in East 
Twenty-ninth Street, where I had a pew. I was 
surprised to see quite a number of men going into the 
church at that hour, and not knowing of any repairs 
going on, for which I would have been called upon, I 
went in to inform myself. 

The way of Almighty God is inscrutable, for I walked into that 
church to take the most important step of my life. My father had been 
nominally an Episcopalian, as his father had also been as nominally of 
the Church of England, and for the same reason. I am naturally of a 

224 



Reasons for Becoming a Catholic 225 

religious turn of mind, but beyond the existence of a sincere belief in 
God the Creator, my faith had been at a standstill since I was a child. 
My dear old grandmother, who brought me up, while professing to be a 
member of the Church ©f England, was a rigid Puritan in practice, and 
from her I obtained a knowledge of the Bible. After reaching manhood, 
I read everything I could obtain having any bearing on the subject, and 
weighed without prejudice the belief of the different Christian bodies yet 
I could reach but one logical conclusion, and this was accomplished, 
notwithstanding all the unfavorable impressions from prejudice I had 
received in early life. I was forced to accept the belief that if there was 
any foundation whatever for Christianity, the authority could only rest 
' with the teaching of the Catholic Church, as the representative on earth 
of our Lord Jesus. The Catholic Church had its origin from the days of 
the Apostles, if Christianity ever had any existence, and it has remained 
unchanged except in discipline and development of doctrine. Nothing 
that our Lord ever taught, or that was ever taught with authority in His 
name by His disciples and their successors, could ever need to be changed 
or reformed. This being the truth I was forced to believe, whatever may 
be said or claimed to the contrary. The Catholic Church is certainly 
the only Christian body having the power to enforce its authority and 
the only one daring to do so as the representative of God, in matters of 
faith, and to exact obedience without question. It cannot be supposed 
that our Lord failed in His promise to be with a representative power on 
earth, "until the end of time," nor that His influence could ever lead to 
false teaching, needing at any time to be reformed. If this were possible 
there can exist no logical proof, nor a possibility even, for the existence of 
Christianity. This hypothesis would be unanswerable were it possible 
to divest human judgment of the inherited blind and ignorant pre- 
judice which exists on the, subject. Of course this argument may be 
denied and with many this will be considered sufficient to disprove the 
accuracy of my statement, but it cannot be logically disproved, if 
divested of sophistry and false premises. Errors in discipline may well 
occur in relation to God's human agency on earth, but the same dele- 
gated power would necessarily provide for the correction of these in due 
time by those in authority, as we know has been going on all the time 
from the beginning. 

If, under the circumstances, I could think a reformation had been 
at any time necessary, I would embrace the Jewish faith. Our Lord 
was a professed Jew until His death, when Christianity had its beginning 
with the first teaching of the Apostles, with St. Peter as the Rock, the 
Foundation of the Church, and the first Pope, and all who were with him 
were inspired for their work, and commissioned to transmit their power 



226 Incidents of my Life 



by Apostolic Succession. By the so-called reformers there has been given 
a human interpretation to the essential mysteries of the Church, and it 
seems incredible to one not in sympathy that any individual could read 
the Bible and be so blind as not to see that their teaching is not in accord 
with that of our Saviour, nor with that of His successors. As regards 
Transubstantiation in particular, something beyond the scope of human 
judgment to understand, we can but accept it literally as our Lord gave 
it ; for, notwithstanding the populace complained it was a hard saying, 
it is the only instance where He refused to give any other explanation. 
Yet this has been so far reformed that only the second or accidental 
clause has been accepted nominally, where an act of simple remembrance 
has been substituted for a mystery of the faith. It is an illogical feature 
of the so-called reformers that an act should be performed in remem- 
brance or commemoration of Transubstantiation, the mystic essence of 
our Lord's Supper, and at the same time deny the essential! Without 
Transubstantiation, the so-called Act of Remembrance becomes one 
without purpose, if judged in accord with our Lord's teaching. 

God in His infinite power has allowed, as with the so-called Reforma- 
tion, these great sloughs to be cast off from the body of the Church, from 
time to time, possibly to teach man the weakness of human faith, and 
the Church has always been the stronger afterwards. 

History repeats itself, but the teaching is soon forgotten. The 
Arians were once numerous and formed a large portion of those who 
claimed to have been part of the Catholic Church. Yet, as the founda- 
tion of their belief rested no longer on a rock, they, as with other schis- 
matics, were gradually brought back, and to-day there does not exist a 
vestige of their former power or influence. 

Has not disintegration already begun in the hundreds of Protestant 
sects, who have each for themselves interpreted what constituted 
Christianity, and I may add. Quo warranto? Does not their widely 
different interpretation of itself show an absence of power and 
authority? The position would be untenable to claim that all, or even 
one possesses the truth. Which one among them has the authority to 
decide ? 

I can give the experience of an old man and state that when I was a 
boy there were very few Protestants who did not at least outwardly con- 
form by regular attendance at some church, while the great majority 
of both men and women were sincere and conscientious in living up to 
what they believed. To-day the large majority of those who are nomi- 
nally Protestants, in contradistinction to the teachings of the Catholic 
Church, are totally indifferent to all religious belief. Others render 
the service in the most perfunctory manner, as if the faith was not in 



Religious Discussion 227 

them, and all are ignorant that the Catholic Church claims to hold the 
proof that the "Reformation" was brought about more through human 
interests, than from supposed need or desire for spiritual change. 

It is natural that I should wish all held in common with me the faith 
of the Catholic Church, but I have lived so much of my life with Protest- 
ants, so many of whom were bettered by their faith, that for the weal of 
the country I would rather see the indifferent ones aU conscientious 
Protestants, living up to their belief, than to drift aimlessly through life 
as a derelict vessel at sea, with no master spirit to guide it. Without a 
strong religious faith no man is safe, nor can he resist temptation, and in 
time he must fall — consequently : every man to-day has his price, but has 
not yet been tempted. As a rule, the most ignorant Catholic has been 
taught the principles of the faith, and while many fall, from the weakness 
of human nature, the fall is entirely through the fault of the individual. 
The Catholic Church furnishes a perfect safeguard against mortal sin, 
and just in proportion as her precepts are made use of, which is something 
those outside of its fold cannot comprehend. But the mass of Protest- 
ants have no belief in common, and use the term Protestant as if it were 
an indication of their faith, while to one who is not a Protestant, it is 
indicative of nothing more than blind and ignorant hatred or opposition 
to the Catholic Church, and grounded on charges which have time and 
again been shown to be erroneous, and on proof which proves satisfactory 
to every one who seeks for the truth. To me, as a Catholic, it is no sur- 
prise that the world is so corrupt to-day, but a surprise it is that it is not 
worse. It shows that the grace of God is still with them from the teach- 
ing of the Catholic Church, and some day it will be the means by which 
their descendants, one and all, will leave the divergent course which 
others prepared in accord with their personal interests and surroundings, 
over three hundred years ago, and which are not tangible to-day. This 
influence will eventually bring all back to the Catholic Church, the 
only one of which we have any proof that it was God's work, under the 
New Dispensation. 

Let the reader, if possible, divest the so-called Reformation of all 
personality and treat it as an abstract question, so that I may present 
the matter from another standpoint. From this point my first proposi- 
tion will be that it is not possible for God -to do wrong by false teaching, 
and that every act of His must be absolutely perfect and incapable of 
after defect, a proposition which should be unquestioned by any one 
claiming to be a Christian, or a believer in God alone. Among the Hin- 
doos and other Eastern people, there are many profound and learned men 
in the law, as an abstract science. These men believe in the Almighty 
God, but, of course, have no belief in Christianity, yet from their legal 



228 Incidents of my Life 

training they could decide a question in connection with Christianity, 
strictly on the evidence. Let us imagine that "the Reformers," who 
claimed a necessity for a reformation in the Catholic Church, for there 
existed no other, before taking matters into their own hands, had pre- 
sented their case and cause of complaint to a court formed of these 
Eastern men — what would have been the result? If it had been in the 
power of the "Reformers" to show by their brief that Christianity was 
the work of God and that, if at the beginning, or at any after period, the 
slightest defect existed to be amended, it would have been held that the 
case could have no standing in court, on the plea that with any defect 
Christianity could never have existed as God's work. On the other hand, 
if it had been God's work, there could never have been a need at any time 
for * ' reforming ' ' something which must always remain unchanged in its 
perfection to the end of time. 

From my study of the teaching and acts of the so-called "Reformers," 
it was made evident that each was for himself with certainly no Christian 
charity or love for each other. Had these men reached any approach 
to the same conclusions and taught the same doctrine, their position 
would have been different. The disciples of Luther and those of Calvin 
certainly can meet on no common ground, but one based on ignorant 
prejudice and groundless hatred against the Catholic Church. V/hen 
we appreciate the extent to which the pendulum representing present 
public opinion has swung in the opposite direction from the teaching 
of these men, and when we consider the countless number who have lost 
all faith in Christianity through their course, and sum up with a thought 
as to the bloodshed and suffering which has resulted in religious strife 
from their uncharitable teaching in the past three hundred years or more, 
we cannot believe that they were inspired, nor had any authority for 
their work beyond their own will and profit. When we go behind the 
teaching of these men there remains but one question to be solved: 
Whom did our Saviour promise to be with in spirit to the end of the 
world, and against whom should the gates of hell not prevail? From 
the unprejudiced investigator but one answer can be given, that 
it was to the Catholic Church, for no other body has ever dared 
claim, as the Catholic Church has, from the beginning to the present 
time, to have been vested directly by our Lord with the power to teach, 
as His representative on earth. 

When the Holy Father defines a matter of faith, as the representative 
of our Lord, he must be accepted as infallible, or Christianity could not 
exist, and yet as a human being he is as liable as another to sin, unless he 
be protected from temptation by the grace of God. 

So far I found it comparatively easy to study the subject from an 



Sermon by Father Gross 229 

historical standpoint, and draw the deductions I have given, as I had 
no desire but to reach the truth, based on logical conclusions. 

But when I tried to understand the "mysteries of the Church," coming 
from unquestionable authority on which all dogmas must rest and con- 
sequently they could be no other than true, for an expression which is 
not true cannot be a dogma, I was unable to understand them, nor did 
they in any way appeal to my judgment as being based on common-sense. 
No man appreciated more than I did the value of a religious life regulated 
by the proper degree of faith, and I have always respected a man, Jew or 
Gentile, just in proportion as he lived up to what he was supposed to 
believe. With regret I could find no resting-place, but I believed a 
merciful God would not hold me responsible for not possessing the faith 
or belief in something which I could not understand, and which did not 
even enlist my sympathy to the slightest degree. 

I had married a devout Catholic, but I was perfectly indifferent 
as to her faith; had she been less zealous I would have insisted on the 
children receiving a religious training, as my observation had convinced 
me those who had received this training at the mother's knee were the 
most fortunate in after-life. For years my wife and I had lived together 
and she had never made the slightest reference to religious matters or 
attempted to influence me in any way. I went to church sometimes 
with her, but I am free to confess I never did so but for a purpose, when 
I knew that I would be undisturbed for an hour or more, and when I had 
a lecture or an address to prepare, or I wished to study out the steps of 
some operation. I could in church draw my head figuratively within 
my shell, and be as little influenced by my surroundings as if I were 
alone in a wilderness. 

The grace of God prompted me to enter that church filled with men, 
and I was told they were attending a Mission, given by a young priest 
of the Redemptorist Order, Rev. Father Gross, who was subsequently 
made Bishop of Savannah and afterward Archbishop of Portland, Ore., 
where he died a few years after, I suppose from overwork. The pulpit 
was within a few feet of the door I had entered, and Father Gross had 
begun a sermon. I did not know what his text was, but he was speaking 
of the mysteries of the Church in relation to faith, and stated that we 
were not expected to try to understand them; that their acceptance 
without question was simply to test our faith as an acknowledgment of 
the authority of Almighty God, and of His right to exact obedience. 
That it was evident we should not comprehend them, as we would then 
be the equal of God himself, and superior to the angels in heaven. 

I have never met with a better illustration as to the importance of a 
few simple words. For years had I attempted to comprehend the views 



230 Incidents of my Life 

of learned men as to what was my duty in regard to this subject. To 
every one of the several thousand men who heard Father Gross's ex- 
planation, even to the most ignorant, this subject was made simple and 
clear. The man who is able to lay aside the consciousness of his learn- 
ing and put what he has to say in as many words of one and two syllables 
as possible, is the successful teacher. 

Thus in a few words I had my way made clear. I was ready to 
acknowledge God's authority without question; also that He could ask 
nothing but the truth ; therefore, I was thus divested of all responsibility 
in accepting what I could not understand. History, tradition, and all 
circumstantial evidence made clear to me, as it would do to any one who 
honestly makes the investigation /or himself, that the Catholic Church has 
existed unchanged in authority and in an unbroken line from the days 
of St. Peter to the present time; and that it could be the only repre- 
sentative on earth of the authority which our Lord promised to leave to 
His church as a teaching body, as His representative, and against which 
the gates of hell could not prevail ; therefore, no further doubt existed in 
my mind. Notwithstanding all the misstatements and sophistry, which 
have been promulgated for several centuries past, I found the way as 
clear as I have indicated, so that no one could hesitate in accepting the 
lead given, provided the investigation was conducted with the grace of 
God, honestly, in quest of the truth. Every investigation must prove, 
however, a useless loss of time if it be undertaken in the same spirit 
which actuated an old planter living near Montgomery, Ala., and cited 
by him in vindication of his failure to "get religion." He lived in a 
good house which his father had built under the lee of an Indian mound, 
to shelter the house from the northern winds in the winter. The existence 
of this mound had become a grievance with him, as he wished to lay out 
his grounds in accord with some plan he had devised. Having heard 
somewhere that faith would remove mountains, he shut himself up in a 
room, with the outlook facing the mound, and offered up a vigorous 
prayer to God for its removal. When he had exhausted his efforts 
seeing the mound unchanged he rose from his knees with the exclama- 
tion, "I knew from the beginning it was all foolishness!" He who is 
unable to divest himself of a like preconceived conviction, as with the 
old planter, had better remain as he may be, and serve God to the best of 
his knowledge, rather than risk the loss of all faith. 

We are, doubtless, commanded to seek the truth and to pray to God 
for the grace to direct us. If this duty be honestly and properly dis- 
charged, whatever may be the result, I believe that God will no longer 
hold the individual responsible. I have no desire to criticise the belief 
of any one, although I am convinced of the truth of my own, and I sin- 



Publish First Medical Work 231 

cerely thank God that I am only responsible for the justification of my 
own conscience. 

As soon as the clergyman left .the pulpit I saw him in the sacristy, 
thanked him for his sermon, and asked him when he could give me con- 
ditional baptism, as I wished to enter the Catholic Church. He said the 
step must not be taken hastily, and that I had first to be instructed. 
I stated this was unnecessary, as I knew everything which would be 
required of me; that I always decided and acted quickly in what I 
wished to do, and I again asked him when he would be at leisure. After 
asking me some questions, he stated he would be at my service in an 
hour. 

I returned home, and told my wife, and asked her to put on her 
bonnet quickly, as we did not have much time to spare. She said nothing, 
but kissed me, and as she left the room her eyes were filled with tears of 
joy, and as she was absent longer than necessary to get her bonnet, she 
doubtless returned thanks for the answer to her prayers she had been 
offering for years. I was baptized, went to confession, and communion 
next morning, and from that time to the present and after an interval of 
nearly fifty years, I have never had the slightest regret. I know what is 
required of me, and as it is easier to obey the law than to transgress, I 
have no trouble, so that my life is gliding on to the close while I am con- 
tented with my surroundings, and at peace with all men. 

From the time I took charge of the hospital in 1861, I had written a 
number of brochures on different subjects pertaining chiefly to the dis- 
eases of women. ^ In 1868 I published my first medical work on Vesico- 
vaginal Fistula from Parturition and Other Causes, and this work estab- 
lished my reputation as a surgeon. For this book I received my first 
recognition on being made a member of the Berlin Obstetrical Society, 
and shortly after I was elected a member of the Medical Society of 
Norway. Since that time I have been made a member of every society 
in the world to which I could have any claim, with the single exception 
of the Obstetrical Society of London. I was nominated for this honor, 
and the committee had decided to vote favorably, as I was informed 
some years after by the late Dr. Playfair of London, who was a member 
of the committee. My nomination was withdrawn, however, the doctor 
stated, in consequence of the representations made by one of my sup- 
posed friends, from New York, who appeared before the committee and 
protested, he being himself a member, against my receiving the honor, 
as it was known that I, as a specialist, had never attended an obstetrical 
case with the exception of that of my own wife. Dr. Playfair wrote to me 

' At the end of the Appendix will be given a list containing the titles of such subjects as 
I can now recall. 



232 Incidents of my Life 

afterward that he had brought the matter to the notice of the members 
of the committee and they wished to bring the facts before the society, 
but I absolutely refused my permission, and with the statement I would 
not accept the honor under any circumstances, if conferred. 

I presented a paper, as already stated, at the meeting of the American 
Gynaecological Society in Philadelphia, during the session of 1878, showing 
the cause of the injury above referred to and stating the means and mode 
of preventing it. During the discussion, my "friend" who had pre- 
vented me from receiving the membership from the society in London 
got up and offered a protest that I, a specialist, should be allowed to lay 
down an unfailing rule to be observed, when the subject had never been 
acted on by those who alone were competent to decide on its merits. He 
sat in front of me, and when he took his seat I said to him in a whisper: 
"Do you know that I had probably seen as many obstetrical cases before 
I ever wrote a prescription in private practice, as you have seen to the 
present time." On reflection, I came to the conclusion that my state- 
ment was an exaggeration. But at that time I was better informed on 
obstetrics than in any other branch of the profession, and but few men 
ever gained in a lifetime as much as I had done in my hospital practice. 
As he had been for years one of the most prominent consulting 
physicians in difficult obstetrical cases, his face was a study. The 
weakness of human nature first prompted me to rise and make this 
statement public, but I had no wish to hurt his feelings. If I had 
ever desired to do so, I certainly had my revenge as to his dying day 
he never forgot his course in London. Moreover, he knew that I had 
become acquainted with all the circumstances, and my forbearance prob- 
ably only accentuated his regret for having, through jealousy, perpe- 
trated the only act of meanness, and a contemptible one, I ever knew of in 
connection with him. 

In the spring of 1871 I became overworked and was on the eve of a 
nervous collapse from brooding over the political condition of the country. 
I had heard from several mutual friends who were in close relation with 
General Grant (based upon what I supposed was good authority), that he. 
expected to run for a third term, and that he had frequently stated he 
saw no reason why he should not be President so long as the army wished 
him to serve! Had this been true, it meant that after the third term had 
expired, and the people should express their dissatisfaction at his con- 
tinuing in office, he would have made himself Dictator. It is possible, as 
General Grant became indifferent and finally yielded to the advice of his 
friends, that already his energy was becoming impaired by the insidious 
disease which caused his death, or he would not at least have abandoned 
his wish to serve as President for a third term. 



Reflections on Political Situation 233 

With my experience during the war, and seeing everywhere through- 
out the country a total disregard for the law and the traditions of the 
country, as shown in the concentration of power by official usurpation, I 
had begun to despair of the Republic. 

For one who has lived as long as I have, and has been as close an 
observer, and has seen no change in the past fifty years in the steady 
departure from the first principles on which this Republic was founded, it 
was but natural that I should have had little hope for the future. We 
are told the times have changed, that we have grown older and must have, 
as the people wish, full liberty to expand! This is not true, as it is 
equally as important to-day, under all circumstances, to preserve invio- 
late every safeguard for the preservation of the liberties of the people. 
Mr. Roosevelt needed no more power during his service as the executive 
head of the country to execute the will of the people when properly 
expressed by Congress, than Washington, if the purpose yet be to main- 
tain a government "for the people, of the people, and by the people." 
The change is certainly a great one when the executive of the United 
States can speak of ''my army,'" or ''my navy'' ! as I have seen stated by 
the press. Does any one to-day stop to think how near we are to a 
Dictatorship? Officials in this country have long since ceased to regard 
themselves as the servants of the people, and I have heard the expression 
made not infrequently by those in power, "Damn the people." I am 
not expressing my views as a Democrat, in political opposition to the 
Republican party, for I find but few so-called Democrats to-day who 
differ in these respects materially from those of the opposite party. 
They have, as a rule, lost all knowledge of first principles, and are 
equally indifferent to the future welfare of the country, through the strife 
for wealth and self-aggrandizement. 

Aubrey DeVere has written: "For a good government — a nation 
forms its institutions as a shell-fish forms its shell, by a sort of slow exuda- 
tion from within, which gradually hardens as an external deposit, and 
must, therefore, be fitted to the shape of that which it invests and protects.'' 
Possibly our country is going through this change in forming a govern- 
ment for the protection of the people in the best form fitted to their future 
wants, and possibly, being blinded by early impressions, I am not able to 
realize the fact. 

The people of a country are entitled to any form of government the 
majority may deem most conducive to their happiness and welfare, and 
I would on principle advocate any change to advance such a consum- 
mation. But unfortunately the people of this country are not the 
factors, for, as a rule, they are both ignorant and indifferent as to details 
in political matters, and know not what they are losing by their indiffer- 



234 Incidents of my Life 

ence. Our form of government is being rapidly changed by designing 
political charlatans, who are working entirely for their own advantage. 
Sooner or later if the people do not rouse themselves in their might from 
their state of indifference, some one will find the opportunity to proclaim 
himself Dictator. Beyond this point we cannot speculate as to the 
future. 

The office-holders under our present form of government hold the 
balance of power, and by their votes and at the dictation of self-interest, 
are able to keep the same party in power indefinitely, a condition of all 
others constituting the greatest danger to the coimtry, as it checks all 
influence of the people in the government, and prevents the action of the 
only check which can exist for insuring an honest administration, by 
frequent changes of party. 

We are a young people and will require at least one hundred years 
longer before we can develop our resources, and during that time we are 
likely to prosper under any form of government: be it Republican, and 
influenced by the voice of the people, or a monarchy, from some one mak- 
ing himself a dictator or king. But for myself, I confess to the existence 
of an all-abiding sentiment and wish for the preservation in all details 
under our Constitution of a imique form of government, which has 
seemed to me, since I could form an opinion, to have been the work of 
inspiration, and the best calculated in its conception to insure the great- 
est degree of freedom and happiness to the largest number of people. 

Of late years my reliance has rested on the ruling of the Supreme 
Court, but my faith in this check has been weakened, as it has already 
been packed as a political measure by the appointment of a sufficient 
number of "true and trusty men" to declare by the ruHng of the majority 
that paper money, but a token of indebtedness, and without intrinsic 
value, was a legal tender, notwithstanding the reading of the Constitu- 
tion to the contrary. With a precedent established, a repetition is likely 
to occur under some other claimed necessity, for "saving the coimtry." 

I can, however, thank God that I had the privilege from early life of 
living under such a form of government, and as a good citizen by taking 
an interest in local affairs I was able to contribute my mite toward its 
preservation. I have never missed taking part in every election since I 
reached manhood, so far as I can recollect, and until the infirmities of 
age forced me of late to remain at home. When a young man, and as long 
as I could do so, I attended the primary meetings, using my influence to 
put in the best men. How many are there among the educated and men 
of social influence in the community who exercise the privilege to-day, 
and especially among the younger men forming the class who are to be 
the greatest losers by any change? It is only a matter of surprise that 



Go Abroad for Rest 235 

the men to whom this work is now left do as well as they do. As an 
"old fogey" I can only accept the inevitable, since all responsibility has 
passed from me and those of my day, to another generation, and may 
God direct them in advancing the best interests of the country. 

I consulted my old friend, Dr. William H. Van Btiren, an ardent 
RepubHcan, and one who had taken part from the beginning of the Civil 
War in the working of the Sanitary Commission, looking after the well- 
being of the soldiers in service during the war. He told me that doubtless 
I was overworked and as I had had but little rest in years, I must abandon 
my practice for six months ; that I must remain travelling in Russia for a 
certain period, and on my return he would tell me why this was necessary. 
I acted on his advice and accompanied by the late General Cullum and 
the late Mr. Theo. Bailey Myers, the latter a friend of many years, we 
sailed in the old Russia, which required from ten to twelve days to make 
the voyage to Liverpool. Those who go abroad at the present time have 
little idea of the discomfort which had to be accepted without complaint 
in the small steamers of the day, and how much had to be borne with from 
the steamship men of that period, who were impressed with their own 
importance and with the idea that the passengers were under personal 
obligation for the transportation given. 

There was but a single cabin in the ship, in the stem, and a small 
dining-room for the children and nurses, in which the passengers were 
to take their meals, and seek shelter with close packing in case of bad 
weather. The staterooms in this ship were in another part of the vessel, 
but up to about that time the staterooms all opened into this, the only 
cabin, so that proper ventilation was impossible. Within a few feet, it 
was possible for those seated on that side of the table to hear on the 
other side of the partition the laborious efforts of those suffering from sea- 
sickness. It was not allowed to smoke below, and at that time I think 
a larger portion of the men smoked than at present, and the only place 
for any shelter was in the "Fiddle." This was a small enclosure over 
the main hatchway, with one bench on which not more than six or eight 
persons could be seated, and all the other passengers who could not find 
standing room had to remain outside in the rain until a vacancy, or go 
below. Within this confined space in bad weather, as was the custom, 
the men on every change of watch were brought in, wet and dripping, 
to receive their grog. For the smoker to keep his feet dry, it was neces- 
sary to lift them with each roll of the vessel, as the swash from the last 
wave taken aboard flowed from side to side. In the partition between 
two staterooms there was but a single candle to light them, placed in a 
lantern, and every light had to be extinguished at ten o'clock. The 
passageways were dark even in the brightest day, and yet all were 



236 Incidents of my Life 



expected to be able to identify the stateroom by a small tin sign tacked 
up over each door, with the number about an inch in height; and the 
staterooms were so narrow that while I was dressing, if seated on the 
upper berth, I had to keep one foot against the opposite side. 

My old friend and roommate, Mr. Myers, had many attributes in 
common with Mr. Pickwick, and the most marked was his lack of the 
btunp of locality. He, being a bookworm, had contracted the habit of 
not going to bed until the small hours of the night. On land I was always 
ready to keep him company but at sea I liked to be able to store my 
clothes away where I could find them in case of need, so I always got to 
bed before the lights were out. On the Russia, Myers had no other guide 
in the dark to his stateroom but to count the number of string-pieces 
overhead while feeling his way, but he often forgot and had to begin over 
again. One day at lunch, he confided to me that he had devised an 
excellent plan to guide him by fastening a cigar-ribbon across the string- 
piece at our entrance. I happened at the instant to catch the eye of a 
young woman seated opposite to me, whom I had known by sight since a 
child, but did not at the time understand what the expression implied. 
That night I had gotten to bed, without having my friend on my mind, 
but was suddenly roused from a sound sleep and my first thought was of 
fire ; but hearing two women screaming I feared my roommate had gotten 
into trouble, so I rushed out in my night clothes to his rescue. Guided 
by the screaming, I found him standing in the middle of a stateroom, 
speechless, until I had dragged him into our room. Soon every one was 
roused and for a while we liad "confusion worse confounded," by every 
one seeking information. One of the ladies who had been screaming at 
length rested from her labors, and stated that some man came in, and 
after running his hand over her had begun to pull the bed clothing off. 
With this explanation, it seemed natural that she should have resented 
such a degree of familiarity from any man on so short an acquaintance. 
But as there was no man in evidence, the stewardess began to question 
her as to what she had eaten for supper, to strengthen, evidently, a pre- 
conceived opinion that she had suffered from an attack of nightmare, 
and this diverted public opinion so that in a few moments all settled 
down again, returning to their nasal pipes. 

Mr. Myers stated to me next morning that on entering, having been 
guided by the ribbon, he had run his hand over the bedspread to see if it 
had been removed, as he found it too warm sleeping with it, but that he 
had felt no one in the berth, and began to pull the spread off and to put it 
aside before undressing. At breakfast, the next morning, I saw at a 
glance such a mischievous twinkle in the eyes of the young woman 
opposite that I knew how the ribbon had been removed, and we had a 



In Ireland and Scotland 237 

hearty laugh together without ever exchanging a word.' The inability 
of Mr. Myers to find his way in a strange place was to some extent due to 
his being very nearsighted, and it happened that I had frequently to hunt 
him up before I could go to bed, for, getting confused as to his locality, 
he was as likely to be found in the basement as in the garret. He had 
great faith in my power of getting about, and whenever he lost his way, 
he invariably seated himself and waited to be rescued. 

We did the usual sightseeing in Ireland and I gained for the first time 
some insight into the condition of the people and of England's crime in 
the mismanagement of that country. I had been active, since a medical 
student, in every movement of the country for Ireland's benefit, but 
what I saw in Ireland during my first visit convinced me that my duty 
was to take a more active part and by doing so stimulate others to greater 
exertion. After my return and to the present time the affairs of Ireland 
have occupied my daily attention. 

We crossed to Glasgow and went up the Caledonian Canal, which 
had been recently built to Inverness, and the mode of travelling on 
the canal boats recalled a trip in early life on the Erie Canal, 
which, before the railroad was built, and for some time after, was the 
usual route to the Lakes and Niagara Falls. I was at Oban on Sun- 
day, and was unable to find the Catholic Church, if one existed. A 
few years after, when on a visit with several members of my family, we 
did succeed in finding a small wooden shant}^ covered with tarred paper, 
in which were assembled not more than some twenty-five people, and 
they seemed in the most moderate circumstances. After the sermon the 
priest, who looked as if he spent most of his time in prayer and fasting, 
called the attention of his congregation to their suffering during the 
previous winter from cold, and to the necessity of making an effort in 
time to lay in a supply of fuel. He stated: "You know that I have 
had nothing since I have been with you and must continue in the same 
way ; my clothing is still fairly good and I can go among you from time 
to time and get something to eat, but we cannot get the coals without 
money, and I therefore call your attention to it in time." The boy 
who had served the mass handed around his tattered cap to receive a 
halfpenny from each. I fortunately had thirty dollars with me in 
English gold, which I handed to the different members of our party and 
when they were dropped into the cap they seemed to be halfpennies, as 
the rest. After leaving the church, the boy came shouting after us, 
calling out, "A mistake! A mistake!" while holding in his hand the six 
gold pieces with his fingers tightly closed over them, and for fear that 

' After so long an interval I find myself in doubt as to the time, and believe the incident 
occurred on our return in the same ship. 



238 Incidents of my Life 

they were not secure, he grasped the right hand in the left. On being 
told that there was no mistake, he stood speechless for a moment, with 
his mouth open, and staring at us. At length he uttered, "Bay it so," 
gave a low whistle and then started off on a nm to the priest, never having 
seen, probably, so large an amount of money before. I have been glad 
to learn that these poor people have become more prosperous, and the 
Marquis of Bute has since built them a church. 

My object in going to Inverness M'as to visit Fort George, on the 
Moray Firth, where my grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, and his 
wife, and a number of leaders, were imprisoned several years by the 
English Government, after the troubles in Ireland of 1798. An ofificer 
was detailed to show us over the fortress, but after so long an interval it 
was impossible to locate the special casemate which they had occupied. 
We were kindly invited by the officers, on account of General Culltun 
being with us, to remain and dine with them. One of the "crack " English 
regiments was on duty there, and one noted for its magnificent service of 
plate, which we saw on passing through the dining-room where dinner 
was to be served. We declined the invitation in the uncertainty of get- 
ting back before morning and on account of the distance of eleven miles 
to drive on the moor after dark. On our return, we drove over the site 
of the battle of Culloden, which was in the immediate neighborhood. 



Chapter XVIII 



Our route from Edinbiirgh to London — Poole, the London tailor — The seat of the trousers he 
furnished his patrons at that time presented a remarkable feature — A dinner in Paris, 
given us by some of the descendants of Lafayette, Rochambeau, and other French officers 
who served in our Revolution — Something about the St. Bartholomew massacre, not in 
accord with the accepted history — My experience on the spire of the Strasburg Cathedral 
— A prediction made in case of accident on the Rigi Railroad — An interesting incident at 
Interlaken, from Geneva to Vienna — Met a Russian official, a man of great intelligence, 
then on his way to Siberia by order of his government — Reported the coming of an 
American general with his staff, who were to enter Russia by the Volga — Gen. Cullum 
sick at Budapest — Changed route and entered Russia from Poland — Received every 
courtesy on the frontier — We were expected — Treatment of an Englishman in contrast to 
our reception — Arrived at St. Petersburg — Taken by a police agent to a marriage recep- 
tion in high life — Shown every day objects of interest, to impress us with the wealth, 
strength, and growing importance of Russia — Saw a review of 80,000 troops from the 
Caspian, they had built a railroad from the starting-point, and all of which was taken 
up on the return — Changed my opinion of the Russian soldier — Russia's management 
of her army — Supported at a less cost than any other country — Russian-Japanese war 
— Cause of Russia's failure — Condition of the Trans-Siberian Railroad — The Czar seemed 
a kindly man — Was misled by foreign criticism as to the supposed needs of his Empire — 
Russia had then the only government fitted for her people — We are conceited in be- 
lieving our civilization should be accepted by the world as the standard^Home Rule has 
existed in Russia for over one hundred and fifty years — No poorhouses in Russia — 
Every family is supposed to have a farm, which is kept for centuries as the headquarters 
for those who fail in obtaining a living elsewhere — The opportunity is there given by their 
labor to make a fresh start — Trouble with the Jews did not seem to be on account of their 
religion, but they will not live in the country, or cultivate the land, but by usury get 
possession of the land of others, and thus give the police a great deal of trouble — My 
opinion of the Russian people from what I saw of their habits and interests — Their 
views as to education — My own views as to the benefit of the public schools as conducted 
in our own country. — Some deductions bearing on the existence of unrest among our 
people at large — Professions all overcrowded by those who are unfitted for professional life 
and could only succeed at a trade — It is the amount of brains God has given a man and 
his progenitors which determines his success in life and education alone cannot gain it — ■ 
Both mechanical and professional efficiency are inherited,— Left Russia for Finland — Met 
an old Russian Admiral — Remarkable man — Did not accept my fish story — Correspond- 
ence with Admiral Tryon, of the CamPerdown — His opinion of his grandfather, Gov. 
Tryon of the American Revolution. 




ETWEEN Edinburgh and London we spent several 
weeks by stopping over at some desirable place 
every day and driving to the east and Vv-est within a 
reasonable distance, to see all of interest. By this 
method we saw a larger section of the country, and 
more of interest than a stranger could see travelling 
only by railroad. 
239 



240 Incidents of my Life 

The most notable event in London was my detention for nearly a 
week to get a suit of clothes for travelling, from the famous Poole. The 
trousers were a curiosity, for after drawing them up as far as the waist- 
band could go under my arms, there yet remained about the seat a 
superfluous degree of space into which a good-sized watermelon could 
have been carried. In those days, I parted my hair behind, and alto- 
gether was rather sensitive of my back effect, so that I travelled over 
Europe devoting a great part of my time to ptdling dowTi the rear end of 
a rather short sack coat to cover the duck-tail-shaped droop in my 
trousers. 

We crossed to Paris and had a large dinner given to us and to several 
other New Yorkers by the descendants of Lafayette, Rochambeau, and 
other French officers who served during our Revolution. 

One of the gentlemen present from New York and now gone to his 
final rest, peace be to him, had given me a great deal of annoyance from 
time to time, as he imagined himself an authority on the subject of 
Transubstantiation, and I being a Catholic, he considered me a fair 
subject to be talked to, while his ignorance was only equalled by his con- 
ceit. During dinner, at which twenty-five persons were seated and all 
were at least nominal Catholics, except five Americans, this individual 
called to me from the other end of the table to look at a medal he had 
obtained in Rome, after the capture and sacking of that city by Gari- 
baldi, "and it would tell me all about the massacre of the Huguenots on 
St. Bartholomew's Day." 

I had become very rusty in my Latin, but having been a numismatist 
at one time of my life and he being ignorant of both Latin and the sub- 
ject, I had the advantage. This medal, of the previous existence of 
which I knew nothing, showed that it had been struck off by the con- 
temporary Pope to commemorate the escape of the French king from 
being murdered by the Huguenots, thus substantiating the claim made 
by the Catholics and showing that accepted history is not always truth- 
ful. It showed that the Huguenots had intended to massacre the 
Catholics by a surprise, and had suffered. I do not consider, from a 
moral standpoint, that either party in France at that time would have 
hesitated to take any undue advantage of the other; it only happened 
that the Catholics on this occasion had acted in self-defence! But as 
there are so many individuals, blinded by religious prejudice, who would 
rather believe in the massacre of the Huguenots by the influence of the 
Catholic Church than to learn the truth, as the house, built over a 
hundred years after the massacre, is still shown from the window of which 
it is claimed the king fired upon the Huguenots, it is likely the old story 
will continue to be perpetuated. After so long an interval the matter 



On Spire of Strasburg Cathedral 241 

can never be settled by any evidence which could be accepted from a 
legal standpoint, as to which party commenced the massacre, for there 
exists nothing but that based upon tradition. On two points, however, 
the proof is positive that religion had nothing whatever to do with the 
outbreak, for it was purely political on both sides. Under the circum- 
stances the lack of Christian charity can alone prompt the spirit to 
misjudge the Catholic Church and ignore the exasperating political 
provocations offered by the Huguenots, who certainly never gave any 
evidence of having become more spiritual in character from a change 
in their religious belief. 

We left Paris for the Rhine, and at Strasburg I had an interesting 
experience. I had followed the Franco-Prussian War very closely and 
wished to study the general plan of the fortifications thrown up by the 
Germans, of which there had not yet been a reliable account pub- 
lished and, unfortunately, we had not the time to drive around them. 
While on the top of the Cathedral I saw that if I could ascend the steeple 
I would be able to accomplish my purpose. But, unfortunately, the 
police had forbidden any attempt to make the ascent, as a short distance 
up the circular stairway the outer carved-stone enclosure had been shot 
away on three sides, in consequence of the steeple having been used by 
the French for an observatory. There remained only a round iron bar, 
about the diameter of the arm, built into the solid stone pillar, on 
which the stairway was placed. On the roof of the Cathedral there was 
quite a large house which could not be seen from the street, in which 
lived the workmen engaged in keeping the church in repair. On the 
chance of not being seen by the police, I engaged one of the men to go 
with me and point out the different positions, and one of our party, I 
believe, went up part of the way. 

Our ascent was made by climbing up from one iron rod to the other 
and we had to keep as close as possible to the pillar as there was nothing 
outside of us. The steeple not only swayed from side to side as a tree 
blowing in the wind, but it had also a twisting motion caused by one side 
being thicker than the other part. After going up some distance, the 
guide called out to me in broken English that his stomach was "getting 
loose," and he returned. 

At that height, of about 500 feet, there was an unbroken view of the 
country to the Black Forest in the south, eighty miles away. I was 
able in a few moments to get a good idea of the besieging line and to have 
the whole impressed on my mind. 

We arrived in Lucerne on the day after the railway up Mt. Rigi was 
opened. I was interested in seeing it as I had passed up the one on Mt. 
Washington, in the White Mountains, the first ever built, but I did not 



242 Incidents of my Life 

have the opportunity of examining it. Between the cog-wheeled track 
there was a continuous serrated iron plate over which, in the ascent, 
was dragged an iron ratchet bar. There was a crowd of people standing 
about, and I happened to say aloud, something I had never known 
myself to do before, "Suppose that ratchet should break?" I recog- 
nized a countryman, before seeing his face, as he touched me on the 
shoulder and said, "We would be in hell in about three minutes." I felt 
like asking him to speak only for himself, and while I was not willing to 
accept his place of destination in case of accident, it was evident under 
the circumstances we would not stand still. My informant had been 
sent over from the United States to superintend the building of this 
road, as he had been connected with the one in the White Mountaijis. 

I had a bedroom at Interlaken on the second story and just over 
the main entrance of the Hotel Victoria. At the foot of the bed there 
was a large, double French window. Looking from the window, the 
most prominent object was the Jungfrau, some twenty miles away, 
with more than half of its surface covered with snow and a glacier. 
On my arrival I was fatigued after crossing the mountains in a private 
conveyance, and retired early. I slept soundly, without waking, until 
I was startled by a flash of light in my eyes, such as a boy will cast with 
the reflection of the sunlight on a piece of looking-glass, 

I saw at once that it came from the top of the mountain, and knew 
that it must be near daylight, for the rays of the sun had just happened 
to strike the face of the glacier when the angles of incidence and reflection 
were in coincidence with the position of my eyes. When I was awakened, 
the room was in profotind darkness, but I witnessed, as the earth rotated, 
the light gradually creep down the mountainside and into my room when 
it was suddenly broad daylight. This phenomenon, a simple enough 
result, would npt likely ever be repeated from a like co-ordination of 
circumstances. 

We left Geneva to visit the Exposition then being held in Vienna, 
and from there we expected to go down the Danube and enter Russia 
from the east by the Volga River, as my medical friend wished me to do. 
The only other person in our compartment, in addition to our party, was 
a gentleman we supposed to be English, who at once engaged us in con- 
versation, and proved to be a remarkably intelligent and well-informed 
man. He was particularly well informed as to the United States, 
understanding the difference between the State and Federal Government, 
and was familiar with the special work of our pubHc men. 

During the day. General Cullum mentioned that he was a personal 
friend of President Grant, and that he carried an open letter of introduction 
from Grant to the American'officials abroad. Otir travelling companion 



General Cullum 111 243 

had mistaken us for Englishmen, and when this letter was mentioned he 
expressed the greatest desife to see Grant's autograph, which, as he 
stated, he had never seen. It was shown him, and I saw that he was 
eagerly taking in the contents to ascertain who we were. In a moment 
he jumped up, hugged each one of the party, with a kiss on the cheek, 
and then began to damn the English people and the government, for 
which he seemed to have the greatest contempt. 

He was a Russian, who had never been in England, and we learned 
afterward that with only a grip-sack he was then on his way to Siberia, 
by order of his Government, to save his estates, having left his family in 
Geneva. He had. been holding for many years a responsible position 
connected with the financial affairs of the country, and for this service 
the Czar had granted a leave of absence for three years to travel abroad. 
During his absence it was found, on examining his accounts, that he 
had made good use of his opportunity; as seems common in Russia 
where the disgrace seems to lie in being detected. 

So perfect was the system of the cotmtry in connection with the 
police, that this gentleman, although in disgrace and on his way to Siberia, 
reported the coming of an American general and a personal friend of 
President Grant, with his staff, on a visit to the country, the purpose 
of which, he probably also reported, he was unable to ascertain. Not- 
withstanding we crossed the frontier a month later than we expected to 
do, and fully a thousand miles from where we stated to him we would 
enter Russia, we were at once recognized and addressed by name. 

Having seen the Exposition at Vienna, and having made a number of 
excursions to neighboring places of interest, we passed down the Danube 
by boat to Budapest. To our surprise we found a number of persons 
were dying daily in the city from cholera, and that the disease was 
epidemic lower down the river. The General was seized within twenty- 
four hours after our arrival with some premonitory symptoms, and as he 
was an old man and suffered greatly from the heat which then prevailed, 
I at once decided to change our plans and go north through Hungary and 
cross the frontier into Poland. It was a tedious trip, and if we had not 
been informed as to the necessity for taking both food and water with 
us we would have suffered greatly, as we found not the slightest provision 
made anywhere for the comfort of the passengers, who received the same 
care given to the freight, and we were likewise left locked up. About 
the only thing I saw of interest, by the way, was twice on the same day, a 
man ploughing, with a woman and a bullock under the same yoke, and the 
ploughman seemed, with his whip, to get quite as much work out of one 
as the other ! I also saw a woman, with her skirts drawn up between her 
legs and secured by a rope around her waist so as to leave her legs bare 



244 Incidents of my Life 

uo to the middle of her thighs, draw a large boat up the stream by means 
of a rope over her shoulder. The black mud was nearly up to her knees, 
while a man, lying on deck under an umbrella, would lazily keep the 
boat out in the stream by an occasional touch of his foot to the tiUer! 
Truly the English-speaking part of the world is a woman's paradise and 
some of the dissatisfied advocates of "Woman's Rights" among us 
would be edified by a visit to this portion of the East. 

At the frontier station, our keys were handed back to us without any 
examination of our baggage. We had to wait on the platform while the 
cars were being searched and the other portions of the baggage examined. 
At length, only the trunk belonging to an English commercial traveller, 
was left and this had evidently been kept to the last for some special 
purpose. 

Everything was slowly taken out of his tnmk, which was turned over 
and sounded, as if looking for a false bottom. Then the conductor 
would call out something as if it were, "All aboard," and the engineer 
would give a blast as if in response, to excite the poor man to the greatest 
degree of worry for fear of being left. This was kept up for fully half 
an hour by taking his trunk away somewhere, as if to have it more 
thoroughly examined, leaving all his things lying around on the platform, 
and the officials pretended they could not understand him, when nearly 
every one seemed to have some knowledge of English. 

On our way through Poland to St. Petersburg we stopped several 
times, and almost before we could light the gas in our rooms a member 
of the police would call for our passports, and untU they were returned, 
we could not leave the hotel without danger of being arrested. We had 
to pay a fee of about sixty cents for a written permission to remain over 
one day or longer, as it suited the police. We now began to realize that 
we were under continual espionage. 

The evening of our arrival in St. Petersburg, after having dressed 
for dinner, we were taken out immediately to St. Isaac's Church by a 
member of the secret police, to witness the marriage of some person of 
importance. Afterward we accompanied him to the house where the 
bride was receiving. This was done evidently to impress us with the 
wealth and magnificent display of diamonds and dresses of the women. 
I had, however, frequently seen at home an equally great display, and in 
comparison with what can be seen in New York at the present time, 
what I saw was not by comparison remarkable, either for good taste in 
dressing or the wealth exhibited. 

But what did seem strange and disagreeable at first was that no one 
took the slightest notice of us, and it seemed as if we were invisible. 

Nearly every day for the six weeks we were in Russia the same man 



The Russian Soldier 245 

generally called to take us from one place to another to see the govern- 
ment monopolies and manufactories of different articles, their ship- 
building and facilities for making arms, and wherever in private works 
anything could be shown to impress us with the strength and power of the 
government. At the same time, it was evident the desire was to show 
us every unofficial courtesy, as, on account of Grant's letter, it was 
supposed we had been sent officially by the United States Government 
on a tour of observation through the country. This was kept up to the 
hour of our departure, and although we were sailing under false colors, 
through no action on our part, it was greatly to our profit. We thus 
saw many things which no amount of influence could obtain for the 
ordinary traveller, and at the same time free of cost, as our transporta- 
tion was always provided for. 

One day we were taken out of town, about twenty miles, to a review 
by the Czar of about 80,000 troops, which had come up from about the 
Caspian. We were told that 60,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry had 
built a railroad over the whole route for transportation of their supplies, 
and on their return everything would be taken up and returned to the 
depot from which they had been taken, every fence that had been 
moved would be mended and returned to its place, and the ground 
restored as nearly as possible to its original condition, and that this was 
all done as a military exercise. 

We were taken onto an artificial mound, within thirty feet of where 
the Czar and about fifty of his staff in the costumes of their different 
countries were standing, and where we could see everything; but no 
one took the slightest notice of us. For several hours these troops were 
being manoeuvred by signal and commands repeated along the line, over 
a level, grass-covered plateau about five miles square, prepared for the 
purpose and with only a single accident from a stumbling horse. 

From what I witnessed on this occasion and have seen and heard 
since, I was obliged to change my opinion entirely regarding the Russian 
soldier. I had considered him only as a part of a despotic organization, 
where he rendered an unwilling service in a perfunctory manner, and 
as by nature stupid and more or less of a lout in all his instincts. This 
is the impression the world has received from reading English books, 
and it is an erroneous one. The result of my personal investigation is to 
believe that the best and the most efficient soldier, out of our own country, 
is, on an average, to be found in the Russian army. The mental capacity 
among the Russians varies as among any other people, and there is 
always a number too stupid to learn little more than the ordinary drill, 
and this faculty is only acquired after great labor. But among those 
capable of acquiring more, they are in the end able to turn their hands 



246 Incidents of my Life 

to almost any work, and consequently their service is maintained by 
the government at a less average cost than the expenditure of any other 
nation of Europe, and as a whole the army is almost self-supporting. 
The government owns the railroads, and its soldiers are detailed to equip, 
run, and keep in repair everything in connection and to construct the 
rolling stock. The Russian soldier then made all his own munitions of 
war, clothing and outfit of every description, and was often detailed for 
cultivating the land, and in this respect contributes toward his own 
support, but to what extent I am not informed. In other words, the 
Russian Government by its system is able to get more from the labor of 
its soldiers, diu-ing the period of peace, at a less cost and to keep its army 
in a state of proficiency at the same time, than any other nation. 

It seemed as if there was no soldier in Russia who was a non-producer, 
and all are engaged in some pursuit within the individual's capacity, and 
at the same time the military demands are maintained. 

The financial credit of Russia has been for many years at a discount 
but this has been, I believe, due more to faulty methods than to any 
consideration as to the resources of Russia for future development, 
which are boundless. 

Notwithstanding Russia was overpowered by Japan in the late war, 
the maintenance of the strife for so long a period and at such a distance 
from the base of supplies in itself demonstrated the wonderful reserve 
strength of the country. 

The Trans-Sibferian Railroad was but a single track, built by contract 
and in the most superficial and fraudulent manner, so that the govern- 
ment, after the commencement of hostilities, was obliged to rebmld 
every foot of it, and with the additional amount of sidetrack necessary, 
it in reality must have built more than a double track throughout. To 
have accomplished such a feat with an ordinary traffic over a road of 
such great length was in itself a remarkable undertaking. But in 
addition to this was the transportation of all the supplies from day to 
day, with the munitions of war as needed, for so large an army, and at 
the same time a heavy passenger service in addition was maintained in 
the conveyance of recruits and the return home of those invalided, and 
to do this during the whole course of the war was an achievement no 
other nation of Europe could have accomplished as well. Within a 
reasonable period there will be built by the government a Trans-Siberian 
railroad, perfect in construction and with a capacity for meeting any 
demand, together with depots along the line for storage of supplies, arms, 
and all needed for a well-equipped army. With my knowledge of Russia's 
resotu-ces, I am inclined to believe that the result of the next war with 
Japan will be different. Before war is again resorted to, it is possible 



The Czar 247 

Russia and Japan may become close allies, with the former as the domi- 
nant power, or Russia must hold Japan as a conquered country. The 
two countries combined could divide up Asia and defy the world. 

But we must return to the review. During the interval for lunch I 
saw the Czar go into a marquee, and as he bent over to kiss his daughter, 
who afterward became the Duchess of Edinburgh, my heart was lightened, 
for I saw the father had on a pair of Poole's trousers, with even a more 
generous and baggy expression of the duck-bill droop from the excess of 
cloth than I had been favored with. 

The Czar seemed a very kindly man as shown by his manner when 
he was among his family, where it was not supposed he could be observed, 
and when he addressed his young aides, having a fatherly joke with them 
all. His fate was a sad one and undeserved, for he certainly made an 
honest attempt to improve the conditions of his people to a modern 
standard. From his fate the question of advisability presents itself as 
to what is progress. The standard in one country must certainly be a 
process of rubbing the hair the wrong way to enforce the same in another, 
where the necessity for change is neither appreciated nor desired. This 
poor man, in his effort to reach a standard in accord with the criticism and 
ignorance of the outside world as to the needs of the Russian people, 
undertook what he could not accomplish. 

That the Czar made mistakes in his attempt to improve the con- 
dition of the country in accord with foreign criticism and without due 
thought as to the actual need, cannot be denied, and in his efforts he 
often proved that he was no better fitted for such changes than his 
people. 

I will give an illustration showing how differently a circumstance 
may be regarded, with the same amount of intelligence. On two occa- 
sions I witnessed in Russia what seemed to me a brutal piece of tyranny, 
while the actors accepted the issue in the most matter-of-fact manner. 
The Czar at one time apparently conceived the idea of making the 
different nations under his authority a single people by mixing them up. 
I saw in Warsaw, and somewhere else in the interior of Russia, but where, 
I have now forgotten, between five and six hundred men brought from 
some distant section, as I was told, having wives assigned them by the 
police in the most business-like manner. The couple thus joined and 
who had never met before, had given them a certain number of acres of 
land on which they were expected to settle down and rear a family ! So 
far as was evident to a looker-on, there was not the slightest objection 
made by either party. An expression of sentiment from our standpoint 
would certainly not have been understood and out of place. Yet we 
would not hesitate to judge in the matter, and thus show that we are 



248 Incidents of my Life 

the most conceited people in the world through our rash judgment of 
everything which does not accord with our views and customs. Would 
we have contributed to the future happiness of these people had it been 
within our power to have gotten them to appreciate the situation from 
our standpoint, due to sentiment and our form of civilization, or could 
we have produced any other effect than one of dissatisfaction with their 
lot? 

At length the time came for leaving Russia, and I must confess, with 
all my liking for the Russians and appreciation of their kindness shown 
us, I had reached a point some time before, where I had become fully 
satisfied with my own country, and with all its defects. I became tired 
of seeing the same people about us day after day, trying to hear every 
subject of conversation, and watching every step we took. It became 
monotonous, after a time, on opening your door suddenly to stumble 
over some one on his knees, and with his eye to the keyhole, and to hear 
the bits of plaster falling between the stud walls of your room and know- 
ing, although one could not see it, that some one was making a hole from 
the next room, to enable him to keep his eye on you. 

But Dr. Van Buren was wise in sending me to Russia when I had 
begun to despair of the Republic. This practical experience was more 
convincing than any amount of argument. 

At the same time, this experience did not lessen my liking for Russia 
and the people. It only taught me the fallacy of our judgment in trying 
to expect the world to conform to our ideas and standards of civilization. 
The Russian form of government did not suit my idea as to personal 
freedom, but at the same time I was impressed with the fact that our 
government would never answer for the Russian people. 

With the Russian people there is nothing in common resembling a 
nationality except among the officials, the army, and navy, for there are 
eighteen or twenty different nations included in Russian territory having 
nothing in common with each other, and ready at all times to cut each 
other's throats, if not restrained by the powerful influence of the govern- 
ment. The government is autocratic in its relations with the coiintry 
at large, and yet it is the only one known to me where pure Home Rule 
exists, with regular local assemblies to provide for the affairs of the dis- 
trict, in relation to taxes, repair of the roads, care for the public bmldings, 
for licensing local traffic, providing for the insane, and all other affairs 
which should not come under the supervision of the general government. 
Few tmderstand that in Russia what might be termed the legal rights of 
every one, from the[_humblest to the highest born in the country, are care- 
fully guarded. There are no poorhouses in Russia, as the government 
for over one hundred and fifty years has provided each family in mod- 



My Opinion of the Russians 249 

erate circumstances with a certain number of acres of land, which are not 
intended by law ever to be sold but to be kept as a headquarters for the 
members of the family to retiirn to, in case of being deprived of a means 
of support elsewhere, and there to remain at work until able to begin 
life anew. 

The trouble with the Jews has not been due apparently to any 
religious prejudice unless there has been a change since my visit over 
thirty years ago, but to the fact that the Jewish people of late years will 
not live in the country, nor cultivate the soil, but have sold their farms, 
and with the money settled in the towns and gone into business. They 
lend their money to the neighboring families at a high rate of interest 
on the installment plan, which in the end the peasant is not able to pay, 
and under a foreclosure the property, at a great profit, passes into the 
hands of the usurer. 

The government officials are thus kept constantly annoyed by 
having to" provide for those who have been evicted and are without 
means of support, until the government can resettle them, and to do 
this often they have to be transported to a great distance before the 
necessary amount of imoccupied land can be obtained. 

As I was informed, and credibly, I believe, the people thus have 
almost an unlimited charge of their local affairs and were contented 
until led astray by foreign ideas, for which they never can be suited. 
So long as an individual attends to his affairs and lets politics in relation 
to the general government alone, he is free to exercise quite as 
much liberty of action as is enjoyed in any other country. While 
he cannot leave his neighborhood without the permission of the police, 
the police do not keep any special supervision over one known to be 
law-abiding. But with the slightest political transgression, the gov- 
ernment is merciless, and this is for its own protection. 

There have been various changes attempted of late in Russia, and 
some may not be in accord with the statements I have made, but I 
have given a true version of the condition as it existed thirty years ago 
and more, during different visits I have made in the past. 

The Russian people of education are certainly as refined as can be 
found anywhere, and their expression of feeling seems more sincere 
than with the Frenchman. The Russian of lower rank may not find 
a daily bath as conducive to his health and comfort as I would claim, 
and in consequence I might wish our intercourse should not be conducted 
at close range, but on the same principle as I woiild claim a right to the 
bath, would I leave it for him to decide when to take one, or not at all. 
The lower classes are not a brutal people, but kindly in their relation 
to each other. The degraded brutality to be seen any day in London 



250 Incidents of my Life 

and the treatment of women there is never seen in Russia, however 
low in the scale of humanity may have been the fall, and I have been 
told wife-beating is a thing unknown in the country. The Russian 
can get as drunk as any one, but he does not get drunk to beat his family, 
or "to rtm amuck, " and when he has reached a certain point he quietly 
goes to sleep. 

I once met a Russian peasant near Novgorod, who had obtained a 
good knowledge of English, but was unable either to read or write; he 
was, however, a very intelligent man and I had several hours' talk with 
him. I asked why the Russian people were allowed to remain in such 
ignorance and not, at least, be taught to read and write. He told me 
that the government had nothing to do with such matters, and that it 
rested with the choice of the people themselves. He stated that so 
far as he had any knowledge of his people they had been in his station 
of life and contented to remain so, as God had not given them the brains 
for doing anything else but cultivate the land. But he had never known 
a boy in Russia brighter than the average who did not manage to better 
his condition by rising in the army, or in some other way by aid of the 
government. For the average peasant he considered a school to be a 
useless expense, and only a means to make the young people dissatisfied 
and to tempt them to get into political trouble. It struck me that he 
took a very common-sense view of the situation. 

From my standpoint, I have for many years regarded our public- 
school system as fallacious and to a great extent an unnecessary burden 
to the community. I am willing that every child should be taught 
to read, write, and to cipher so far as the child shows any capacity. 
Beyond this it is certainly no progress to try to give every child, without 
reference to its mental grasp, the same superficial education of our 
public schools, without knowledge in detail on any branch even in the 
rudiments, by the aid of which it could obtain a livelihood, with, as a 
rule, no other result than to cause dissatisfaction with his or her station 
in life. The public-school education has been the chief means of causing 
a distaste for a quiet countiy life, and less and less land is being culti- 
vated by our native poptilation, both the men and the women seeking 
excitement ; the men to gain as much money in the least time and by the 
least honest labor as possible, and becoming in time not over scrupulous 
as to the method. Search the records of the penitentiaries, and more 
of our native-born men, educated in our public schools, will be found 
there in proportion to those of foreign birth and those uneducated. 

The girls become ashamed of the old people at home, and are off to 
the city, leaving home with the hope of being able to gratify a taste for 
gaudy finery. If what I have been told by the police authorities be 



Our Public-School System 251 

true, the number of young girls who go to the devil to gratify their 
taste for excitement and dress is appalling. 

I believe the pubUc-school system as it exists at present will prove a 
curse to the coimtry. From this conviction Catholics have to pay the 
double tax, for maintaining the public schools and their chxirch schools 
in addition for their own children, and the sacrifice is made as a matter 
of conscience. 

No one in the htunbler walks of life has any reason to feel an in- 
justice has been inflicted, or that any one or any system can be blamed 
that his position was not higher, for the station in life of the child is 
generally determined by the mental capacity of the immediate ancestors. 
The self-made man often comes from the lowest walks of life, and his 
advance in the scale reaches the exact level of his mental capacity, and 
if he remains in good health nothing but intemperance can retard his 
advance, which must be due to his own efforts. 

The importance placed in this coimtry on educating the masses has 
certainly not operated in all respects for bettering the condition of the 
child, and I claim the general result has proved one of detriment to 
the coimtry at large. The want of a general education does not offer 
the slightest impediment to the advance of any individual, as the need is 
always suppHed in after-life just in proportion to the wish and capacity 
for acquiring it. With all the cant which exists to-day on this subject, 
and held by those who do not do their own thinking, it will be held 
that I am opposed to "giving the poor a chance." This is not true. 
I judge from personal experience and would wish every child to receive 
from the pubUc school at least as much as I had, from force 
of circumstances, to depend upon, when I was thrown on my own 
resotirces — ^being able to read and write, with some knowledge of cipher- 
ing. This is enough to build on, if more is needed in after-life. An 
acquired education, obtained by the efforts and need of the individual, 
is generally far more extended than the average one gained from child- 
hood, under apparently more favorable circumstances. Every pro- 
fession is crowded at the present time in this covmtr^'- with half -educated 
persons and many are totally unfit for their special work, every one 
of whom, if they possessed the capacity, would through instinct recognize 
the need of more, and would have supplied the deficiency. Yet the 
mere literary knowledge does not insure success in life. Some of the most 
learned cannot earn a support as some inheritance is needed in addition. 
If a change could be made fully one third of otir professional men would 
be more useful to the State and themselves as efficient mechanics or 
tillers of the soil, where they could command in after-life a more honored 
and successful position. I am more famihar with the medical pro- 



252 Incidents of my Life 

fession than any other and know that many among the physicians have 
been placed in a false position with the hope of "bettering their con- 
dition" in life. They were misled to gratify new and artificial wants, 
which in the end must prove, if ever gained, to be in no way a betterment 
or necessity, adding nothing to their comfort by the additional cares 
which have to be assumed. Where social aspirations have been excited, 
the failure is likely to be the greater, since it requires, it is claimed, 
fully three generations of prosperity and training before any family 
can command as a right a social position, and one free from the ridicule 
which is always meted out to those who have become suddenly rich 
and have not yet learned to know what to do with their hands or money. 
The struggle is properly left open to all who wish to engage, and where 
talent commands success the acquirement is praiseworthy, but for all 
to make the same effort, amounting in this country actually to an up- 
heaval of society, means nothing but disappointment for the many. 

As regards pecuniary success in the medical profession, the pros- 
perous mechanic has by far the better prospect for making a provision 
for his family after death than the average physician. This confining 
to some extent of trades and professions to families, as a question of 
political economy, has an important bearing in the development and 
prosperity of a cotmtry. In Germany, where such questions can gen- 
erally be settled by the statistical bearing, it is foimd that mechanical 
as well as professional talent is hereditary to a great extent. It is shown 
in Germany, so far as I can recall the exact figures, that the son of a man 
whose family, for instance, have been needle-makers for generations can 
be taught to make nearly half as many more eyes or grind the points 
of more needles than it is possible for the son of a carpenter to be taught 
to do within a given time, and the same general bearing is true of all 
other mechanical pursuits. 

Without wishing to be personal, but as an example, I will cite my 
own case as coming of a family of physicians and svirgeons who, for over 
two hundred years at least, had their brains developed and trained in one 
particular line of study; so that when one of my sons graduated in 
medicine I presented him with a medical work written by myself, one 
by my father, one by my grandfather, and great-grandfather. The 
work by my great-grandfather was on Some of the Diseases of Wo- 
men, written in Latin and published in 1742, with two editions trans- 
lated into French and one in English, within the following ten years. I 
have nothing written by his father, but, according to tradition, he was 
noted in Tipperary, Ireland, as a surgeon, and for his successful treat- 
ment of fevers. Consequently, I believe that I was better. able, as a 
pioneer and a practitioner of my profession, to gain more knowledge as 



Left Russia for Finland 253 

an accurate observer than would have been possible had my father's 
ancestors followed any other pursuit than a professional one. In con- 
clusion, I will state a fact that is well known to me, that when a man 
expresses an opinion on this subject not in accord with the popular 
one, it is usual to charge him with selfishness. This is not true, for I 
wish advancement and prosperity to every one who is sufficiently en- 
dowed mentally to maintain the position, and I have never neglected to 
aid any worthy young man, who has ever come under my observation, 

I left Russia by steamer for Finland and Stockholm. The steamer 
only proceeded on her way along the Finland coast between sunrise and 
sunset, coming to anchor, and the officers and men turned in at bedtime 
by the clock, notwithstanding it was then daylight during the whole night, 
with the exception of about half an hour of twilight. It was amusing 
to see how the instincts of nature prompted every bird, fowl, and animal 
to gravely turn in for a night of sleep after the supposed hour for sunset, 
and to turn out again at an imaginary sunrise. We found it impossible 
to sleep, and would go ashore and wander aroimd for the greater part 
of the time when according to custom we should have been in bed. We 
made a stop at Helsingfors, and I was surprised to find so many of the 
men and boys speaking English. On inquiring, I was told, from some 
cause and from an unknown period, the people of that place had traded 
with Hull, England, where it was customary for the young men to seek 
employment at some time. 

On board the steamer I met a remarkable old gentleman, who still 
seemed to be an admiral in active service, although he had reached a very 
advanced period of life. So long as we were in Russian waters he always 
appeared in full uniform. He spoke English perfectly and was the 
president of the Russian Geographical Society. As all of our party at 
that time were active members of the New York Society and held a 
roving commission of introduction to like societies, the admiral was 
quite friendly and seemed to take a partictdar fancy to me. The old 
gentleman always took his exercise for about two hours on deck, just 
after breakfast, and if I did not join him he sent one of his aides with the 
request that I should do so. Geographical subjects have always been 
of particular interest to me, and as he was very inquisitive about ob- 
taining any information in relation to this country, I was fortunately 
able to gratify him. He was so remarkably well informed, as a rule, 
that I was surprised at the abrupt termination of our acquaintance. In 
conversation I mentioned the fact of the frequent disappearance of large 
rivers along the watershed west of the Mississippi River, and that it 
was generally supposed that they emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, as 
at a number of points the water is generally found fresher and in a state 



254 Incidents of my Life 

of constant agitation. I mentioned the Green River in the Mammoth 
Cave, on which I had rowed about three miles, as it passed through 
the cave to appear again above ground and resume its course. I also 
mentioned the fish fotmd in the cave being without eyes, and fotmd 
nowhere else in the river, where all trace of the bon^'- eye-socket had 
disappeared. He looked at me for a second or two, and coming to 
the conclusion that I had been telling him a "fish story," he coldly 
remarked, "It may be so, it may be so," and turning on his heel, he 
never spoke to me again. As the old gentleman was a midshipman in 
the Russian Navy when Nelson bombarded Copenhagen in 1801, he 
must have been nearly ninety years of age at this time. 

When in London on my way home I tried to hunt up Admiral Tryon 
of the British Navy, to whom I had a letter of introduction. I found 
he was absent and in command of the Mediterranean fleet, at that time^ 
where he shortly after lost his life from some error in the mode of manoeu- 
vring his ships, and the Camperdown, his flagship, was accidentally 
rammed and sank, while he made no effort to save his life, in consequence 
of his mortification and sorrow for the loss of life his mistake had caused. 

I wanted to see him about his grandfather, who was Governor of 
North Carolina and New York before the Revolution, and during the 
war had a command of Tories with which he laid waste the Long Island 
shore and Connecticut in a barbarous manner, and burned several 
towns in the interior. I wished to get a copy of a likeness of Governor 
Tryon to complete the series of Colonial Governors of New York. I 
wrote, stating my desire, and in time received a very characteristic 
letter from the honest old sea-dog. He stated there was no likeness of 
his grandfather in existence, and he was thankful for it, as he had no 
wish to perpetuate his memory, for he knew of nothing in connection 
with his career in this coimtry to his credit, and he thought the sooner 
his grandfather was forgotten the better! 



Chapter XIX 



Return from Russia — Thankful to Dr. Van Buren for the experience — Interesting visit from 
the late Charles O'Conor, then at the head of the New York bar — His account of the 
action of the Orangemen in New York on July 12, 1824 — They marched to Greenwich 
Village to rouse the Catholics — They were successful in receiving a thrashing — Many 
Irishmen were arrested and imprisoned until the trial two months after — Indignation of 
Thos. Addis Emmet, on learning the circumstances — He gave up his other business and 
defended the prisoners — All were acquitted — Mr. O'Conor gave the history of a silver 
pitcher from which he was then being served — He was requested after the trial to get 
up this testimonial for Mr. Emmet — Mr. O'Conor gave a very humorous account of the 
experience a clergyman had with his cook, on his inquiry relating to "The bell, book, and 
candlestick" — As an honest man, he made a public apology, in acknowledgment that he 
deserved what he received — Mr O'Conor stated that the degree of bigotry and pre- 
judice in New York against the Irish Catholics was not equalled elsewhere — My grand- 
father was so outspoken on the existing condition that it attracted the interest of every 
one, and was the beginning of more tolerance among all classes — On my return from Russia 
I devoted myself with greater zeal to teaching and writing on the subjects which I was 
rapidly developing — Began to write my work on The Principles and Practice of Gyne- 
cology — Found many difficulties to overcome — The work done chiefly late at night — 
Fun and frolic when I had time with the children in the morning — My wife's efforts to 
get me to bed at an early hour — When completed the work was dedicated to the memory 
of my father — Publication declined through the advice of a supposed friend — Member 
of the Irish Relief, or Mansion House Committee of the United States — Henry C. Lea, of 
Philadelphia, offered to publish anything I wrote and became the publisher — Bad 
effects of tobacco — Difficulty in breaking the habit — Received the Degree of LL.D. — 
Condition of Ireland considered — My services given at an early period of my life to the 
work of aiding Ireland. 




T length I reached home, in perfect health, and I 
sincerely thanked my friend Dr. Van Buren for 
sending me to Russia, and I appreciated all the 
more my own country with all its faults. 

One of the first persons who called after my 

return was my old venerated friend, the late Charles 

O'Conor, then at the head of the New York bar. 

His visit is impressed on my mind from the interest he took in what I 

told him about Russia. He dined with me, and during the dinner his 

255 



256 Incidents of my Life 

attention was attracted by a silver pitcher from which he was being 
served, and he related to me and the family the following anecdote, 
as he termed it, a portion of the unwritten history of New York: 
From my work on The Emmet Family, the following is taken: 

On the 1 2th of July, 1824 [he stated], a procession of Orangemen marched 
out of the city with banners flying and the band playing "Croppies Lie 
Down," etc., to the little hamlet of Greenwich Village, then in the country 
between the present site of Jefferson Market and the North River. This 
village was settled at that time almost exclusively by Irish Catholics, who 
were chiefly laboring men. Mr. O'Conor stated that these people were 
obliged to live together to a great extent for their own protection, as a large 
portion of the New Yorkers were at that time very bitter and prejudiced 
against all those who differed with them in religious belief. The Orangemen 
marched deliberately to this village for the purpose of irritating the inhabi- 
tants, and succeeded so well that they received a most humiliating thrashing. 
As the fugitives were driven into the city, the worthy Sheriff proceeded to 
swear in a special posse, and on reaching Greenwich every man who could 
be found was arrested. On the following morning a hundred or more Irish- 
men were arraigned on the charge of rioting and disturbing the peace, with 
almost a certainty of conviction before them. During the following Septem- 
ber term these men were tried on the charges cited, and the judge, hearing 
the testimony and not apparently supposing that there covdd be another 
side, was about to pass sentence. 

Mr. Emmet (my grandfather) who was then living in the country, and who 
had not heard of the difficulty, at that moment happened to come into the 
courtroom. Mr. O'Conor stated that it would be impossible to give any 
idea of Mr. Emmet's indignation on learning the facts of the case, and that 
some of these men had been imprisoned for six weeks or more. On the open- 
ing of another court in the same building, he expected in a few moments to 
appear in a noted case, but he threw aside his engagement that he might 
defend these men. So freely did he speak of the disgraceful state of intoler- 
ance which then existed in the city, and of the great injustice suffered in 
consequence, that the judge, on hearing the facts of the case, forthwith dis- 
charged the prisoners without even a reprimand. 

Mr. O'Conor went on to say that a few days afterward it so happened 
that a clergy~man connected with one of the churches of the city gave a thought 
to his cook's religious status, and then learned that she was a Catholic. 
Possibly with a special interest to her spiritual welfare, he descended into her 
kitchen and commenced operations with the inquiry: "Biddy, let me know 
about your bell, book, and candlestick. " "Troth an' I will, " was her reply; 
so putting her foot against her broom and breaking off the handle, she seized 
him by his white cravat and tallied the blows over his head and shoulders 
with "This is for the bell; this is for the book; and this is for the candlestick." 
Finally he managed to escape into the street with Biddy after him. This 



United Irishmen and the Orangemen 257 

publicity put the laugh on the clergyman, and in a few days the whole incident 
was illustrated by the issue of a series of caricatures. The clergyman, as 
an honest man, publicly acknowledged that he had been in the wrong, and 
had deserved his punishment. 

In consequence of Mr. Emmet's defence of the men from Greenwich and 
because of the incident of Bridget and the clergyman, a true sense of justice 
seems to have been aroused in the community and a more charitable tone 
developed. 

As regards the silver pitcher, Mr. 0' Conor said that he was at the time 
an office-boy of about twenty years of age, and had just begun to read law 
during his spare moments. A committee of the Greenwich men waited upon 
him, with the request that he should take charge of some money which had 
been collected to purchase a testimonial for Mr. Emmet. Under his super- 
vision this silver pitcher was made in New York and presented to Mr. Emmet. 
The following appropriate inscription was engraved upon it : 

"Presented to Thos. Addis Emmet, Esqr., as a slight testimonial of their 
respect and admiration for the patriotism and talents displayed in his 
gratuitous defence of his Exiled Countrymen from the assaults of Irish 
Orangemen in America, by the Irishmen of the Village of Greenwich, 
whose cause and principles he advocated on that occasion in the Court 
of Sessions of New York for September Term 1824. " 

In addition, I give the following: Mr. Charles G. Haines's Memoir 
of Thomas Addis Emmet closes with the following reference to this 
event described by Mr, Charles O' Conor. 

In a recent case in our criminal court for the City of New York, Mr. Emmet 
had an opportunity of explaining the broad principles of that grand revolution 
in which he embarked. The United Irishmen and the Orangemen who had 
emigrated to this metropolis had a tremendous battle upon old party grounds. 
They appeared in our streets in the upper part of the city with their ancient 
badges of destruction. Terrible assavilts and batteries were committed, but 
no lives lost. . . . Mr. Emmet appeared in court as the counsel of his ancient 
associates, and we may well imagine in what manner he touched on that 
portion of Irish history that recalled to his mind the days of his suffering, 
persecution, and imprisonment. For two hours he spoke on this topic; and 
as the younger Lyttleton said, when he first heard Lord Chatham — "he 
made my blood run cold and touched the deepest recesses of my heart." 
The Irish population had gathered in court and with silent awe they heard 
their great countryman pour out his soul on the degradation of the country 
which they had abandoned. However, both parties did not feel the pride 
which was manifested by the famous Lord Lovat, when he was tried for his 
life and found guilty. Mr. Murray, afterward Lord Mansfield, was then 
Attorney- General, and conducted the prosecution — the trial having taken 
place in England, not Scotland. The eloquence of Lord Mansfield requires 
17 



258 Incidents of my Life 

no eulogism at this late day. He broke forth on this occasion with great 
power. After he had concluded, Lord Lovat, who was proud to see a Scotch- 
man at the head of the English bar, remarked that "it was worth being exe- 
cuted to hear such a speech from one of his countrymen. " 

Mr. Haines was unable to appreciate the true merits of the case, 
but fortunately the judge was able to do so clearly, as shown in his 
ruling, and in the unconditional discharge of the prisoners. 

On my return home from Europe I began with greater zeal to teach 
and to write frequently for the medical journals on various subjects 
connected with the specialty, and these articles were issued in pamphlet 
form for a more extended distribution, not with the object of gaining 
practice nor reputation, for I had acquired both; but to extend my ex- 
perience to the greatest number, and this I did at a great expense. 
With a directory of the names of all the physicians in the United States 
and with a special list of the more prominent men abroad, these pam- 
phlets were systematically sent so as to be fairly distributed among those 
who would be likely to make use of the teaching. In addition, I gave 
close study to a special operation, which had already been ten years 
under observation, for the prevention of epithelioma, a form of cancer, 
following an injury, from which more mothers have died, with many 
years of bad health preceding, than from any other disease, with the 
exception of consumption. From the success of this operation in my 
hands it became known all over the world as "Emmet's operation," 
and an article I wrote on the subject was reprinted in the Chinese 
characters for circulation in China and Japan. In accord with my 
observation, the operation has proved as perfect a protection from the 
occurrence of this fatal disease as vaccination is a protection from small- 
pox. Yet the advantages are already being forgotten, or are not put 
into practice intelligently by those coming after me. 

In my experience, success cannot attend any undertaking without 
acquiring an accurate knowledge of all details. The members of the 
medical profession of the present day, in keeping with the general public 
desire for immediate results, are not willing to give the necessary atten- 
tion to detail, hence the results have not always been satisfactory to the 
operator nor to the public. Much harm has resulted from the operation 
by not having been promptly performed, or, in countless instances, it 
has been done when the patient should not have been subjected to it, 
or the expense. Charlatans have urged the need of a pretended opera- 
tion as a cloak for exacting an unearned and extortionate fee. I have 
sometimes felt that I have been the indirect cause of more harm than 
good. It may be intended that 'some one, on what I have taught, may 
at some future day be able to give a simpler and better method. 



i*>r*i*:rf <2» ;i4,*-J!i;%,- * :^'^, ..:, ■^mSidft 




.a.M .iammH si bb A gBmoriT 

e88i ,i3ri3iA i{d jifiUioq lio n£ moi'I 



Incidents 



jreat 
'tch- 



>\je 1 began with greater zeal to teach 
: '. medical journals on various subjects 
»- and these articles were issued in pamphlet 

i ' . distribution, not with the object of gaining 

P- 'or I had acquired both; but to extend my ex- 

pt~^ .., m;ii,ber. and this I did at a great expense." 

With a (iirfcctory ot thr ph\'sicians in the United States 

and with a special list .linent- men abroad, these pam- 

phlets \\ere system .e fairly distributed among those 

who W'.ifd be 111 -''^ir^hing. In addition, I gave 

1 already been ten years 
Thomas Addis Emme^," M.'E)? form of cancer, 

From an oil portrait by Archer, i88a ■^-^' '^'ith many 

.-,.-,. mWK tv,e 



c> »eration h 

P le not put 

ini... . 

If' -vaking without 

' ■ ■ bers of the 

ral public 

" * ' en- 
the 



gOL" : 

at son 



Began my Book on Gynaecology 259 

Soon after my return from Europe I began to write a systematic 
work on the diseases and surgical operations relating to women. In 
my private hospital I kept a case-book containing a record of every 
patient admitted, and the details of every case were recorded by myself. 
As all of these patients were intelligent and educated, they easily under- 
stood the necessity for assisting me by giving accurate knowledge. 

All other previously-published records were taken from public 
hospital records as given by ignorant persons, as a rule, and who fre- 
quently gave false and misleading answers from ignorance, or from being 
prompted by a shrewd desire to mislead a supposed degree of inquisition^ 
the importance of which they did not understand. In other words,, 
the great value of the records from my private hospital was due to the 
circumstance that they were taken from those who, when necessar^^ 
franldy stated their inability to answer accurately any special question; 
while the uneducated never hesitated to give such an answer as they 
might imagine was desirable and would do so without reference to the 
truth. 

Having no desire to prove anything but the truth, I proceeded to 
place each symptom or circumstance connected with any special 
disease or lesion under an appropriate head. When I had finished my 
task, for I could not intrust this work to any one else, I had tabulated 
the natural history of each disease, showing the average frequency of 
every feature. To use a simile, although not strictly applicable, it was 
not unlike the course taken on entering an unknown harbor, and finding 
the channel by placing the sounding on a chart at regular intervals, and 
thus when the whole space had been gone over, the course of the channel 
would be always indicated. Then, when writing, after each feature 
had been given in detail, all would be illustrated by giving the details 
of such cases as may have passed under my observation, with the result 
of each case in recovery or death. No work of the kind had ever been 
written before on this plan, which was original. 

Nearly every page of the work was written at night when I should 
have been in bed, and it was necessary to take this time, or the work 
would never have been written. To write the book at all sacrifice I 
considered as much a duty as the conducting of my clinics, or any other 
plan necessary for teaching, otherwise I would have failed in reaching 
man}^ whom I could reach in no other manner. I began my task with 
the determination to carry it out to a successful end, but the difficulty 
was to begin the work, as I found no time after I had rested from the 
fatigue of the day, and in consequence of the difficulty the undertaking 
seemed an impossible one. At length I made a beginning and started 
my work, as I have described building my boat at Ward's Island, from 



26o Incidents of my Life 

the middle and by building out to each end. I had had no experience 
in book-making, so I decided to take one subject after another, as I 
felt like writing on any special line, and then I intended to put them 
together as chapters in such order as might seem advisable. But the 
main point was to keep steadily at work. I would begin my work by 
VkTiting a sentence or two, or try to decide how I should begin, and due 
thought could only be given to the subject by lying back in my chair 
and possibly closing my eyes at the same time, but always with the 
same result, as I would be found the next morning asleep in my chair 
by the housemaid when coming in to dust the room. After this had 
occtured several times, I happened to recall the experience of the elder 
Agassiz which I had heard at Dr. Dunglison's table many years before, 
as I have already noted. 

I procured a stool without a back and with the seat just large enough 
for me to balance my body when awake, then as soon as I nodded, I 
fell off onto the floor. After having picked myself up several times, 
the desire to sleep got jarred out of me, and I was then ready to work 
until the last moment, when I could be sure of at least five hours of 
iminterrupted sleep, which wotild be sufficient to enable me to get through 
the work of the next day. Fortunately I had acquired the habit of 
being able to sleep anywhere and to forget myself in sleep as soon as I 
closed my eyes. I wovdd then sleep from three to eight o'clock. 

After that time, when the nurses were at their breakfast, it was as 
impossible to restrain the children within bounds as to stop the course 
of a mountain stream. They would come to the door and fall in line, 
under the pretence of consulting their mother on some all-important 
point, and speaking very low, so as not to wake me. As I would always 
be roused on hearing them escape from the nursery on the story above, 
I would be prepared to receive them with my eyes shut and lying on my 
side toward the door. Suddenly I would begin pretending to snore at 
my highest key, and with the issue of the first note there would be a 
shout of delight and a rush would be made to the bed, as experience had 
taught them the fun was to begin. All would get astraddle, from my 
shoulders to short of sitting on my feet; the youngest was entitled 
to the first seat and to be thus out of danger. I would pretend to be 
asleep for some time, but a supposable condition only with all the noise 
and bouncing up and down of each child on me. But the greatest fun 
was supposed to be when I would suddenly pretend to wake up and turn 
over so as to give each one a toss off onto the bed. Soon their mother 
would be fairly crowded out of bed or the noise would become too much 
for her, and she would escape to her dressing-room. For nearly an 
hour I had to sing negro or Irish songs, tell stories, give them an occa- 



Finish Book after Five Years' Work 261 

sional toss when not expected, and the benefit of any horse-play I could 
conceive of, all of which was enjoyed to the utmost by them, as well as 
by myseh, for I seldom had time to see them at any time during the 
day but at lunch, whenever I was able to be in time. Before nine I 
had to get up and dress, breakfast, and be in my ofQce at ten o'clock to 
begin the day's work. 

After I had gotten fairly started upon writing the book, my wife, 
with more judgment as to the consequences than I had shown, made 
the attempt to get me to bed earlier, for fear that I would break down 
and be unable to continue my work on so little sleep. But failing to 
accomplish anything by reasoning with me, as I had only laughed at her, 
she determined to accomplish her purpose by appealing to m}^ sym- 
pathies. Her whole life was spent in thought for others, so she deter- 
mined to make a sacrifice of her own sleep as a means of softening my 
heart. At bedtime, to accomplish her purpose, she would take a seat 
in my library, close at hand, and although nearly overpowered with sleep 
from the fatigue of her duties during the day, she undertook to wait for 
me until I was ready for bed, and hoped that her mute appeal would be 
more effective than her words had been. As I knew what would likely 
happen, I went on with my work. In a few moments, I wovild know 
from her breathing that she was asleep, and I would throw something 
over her until half past two or three o'clock, when I would be ready for 
bed. On waking her and pretending she was keeping me up, it would 
be difficult to find words to express her disgust at her inability to keep 
awake. After several trials and with the same result, she would come 
in, with a sad expression, say good-night and leave me as incorrigible. 

At length I finished my work, after five years' labor under pressure, 
and but for my indomitable will-power it would never have been accom- 
plished. It has been a characteristic trait from childhood with me 
never to abandon anything undertaken, if the end could be gained by 
any continued effort on my part, and I seldom become discouraged. 
I arranged my subjects in chapters as I expected to do at the beginning, 
but I found it made a crude arrangement, not unlike simply piling one 
stone on another, for there were corners and spaces between, which 
needed to be filled with literary material and pointed up. In other 
words, I was obliged to write on- to the end of each chapter and to the 
beginning of the next, until I was able to blend them. This required 
a great deal of labor and occupied more time than would have been 
necessary if I had made a table of contents at the beginning and sys- 
tematically written in accord, from the beginning to the end. 

At a rather later hour than usual I finished, by writing the dedication, 
as follows: 



262 Incidents of my Life 

To the 

Memory of my Father 

John Patten Emmet, M.D., 

Many years Professor of Chemistry in the University of Virginia, 

who died in 1842; 

AN HONEST MAN, 

Esteemed by all who knew him. 
To his example and early training I owe my success in life ; 

In youth I have aimed to merit his approbation ; 
In manhood I have striven to be worthy of his good name. 

No honor, nor any other circumstance in connection with my pro- 
fessional life ever gave me the same degree of pleasure and satisfaction 
I felt when I finished this dedication, realizing as I did the pleasure 
my father would have felt had he been with me inthe flesh. The impres- 
sion was an irresistible one to me that he was present in the spirit at my 
side, and in response to the im.pulse I turned my head to greet him. 

The manuscript was offered to a New York pubHsher, who promptly 
returned it in a few days, tersely stating that the work was not desirable 
for publication. As I had doubted my ability from the beginning, 
through lack of literary training, to write a book of sufficient merit to 
meet the public demand, and as I had conscientiously exerted every 
effort within my power to overcome the difficulties, I accepted the 
publisher's answer as conclusive and put the manuscript away to be 
forgotten. 

Many years after, I learned that the manuscript had been submitted 
by the publisher to the editor of a medical journal in his employ for his 
opinion as to its merit, and the decision had rested entirely on his state- 
ment that the work contained nothing new, and that there was no demand 
for a new book on the diseases of w^omen. Consequently it Vv^as de- 
clined. This man had been under the greatest obHgation to me; he 
pretended to take the most enthusiastic interest in the development 
of the book; on his advice I went to the pubhsher and until his death 
he professed to be a friend ! Peace be to his ashes and may this and many 
other efforts on his part to injure me be forgotten. 

After a delay of a year or more, Henry C. Lea, the publisher, of 
Philadelphia, wrote to me stating that he had learned I had written a 
book on the disea,ses of women, that it had been declined, and that he 
would be glad to publish anything I wrote on the subject. 

I gladly accepted his offer. The most laborious part was to get 
the statistical tables properly printed, and this required, if my memory 
is correct, nearly six months before the plates could be electrotj^ped 
and the regular printing of the book begun. 



The Work Original 263 

This work, termed The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology, 
was published in 1879, and went through three editions in this country 
within fifteen months, and each edition was rewritten. All three edi- 
tions were reproduced in London, and translations into German and 
French were printed in Leipzig and Paris. I have been informed that 
one was also made in Spanish, but the manuscript was lost by some 
accident. 

This was a very profitable undertaking for all but the author. As my 
publisher assumed all the risk and cost of publication, I only received 
thirty-three cents a copy, while the work sold at five dollars. I re- 
ceived about what repaid me for the outlay necessary in having copying 
done with researches and translations from the German and French 
medical literature, for information as to what had been done abroad, 
and for the proofreading for which I had no time. The English, German, 
and French editions were piracy, and I was favored with but a compli- 
mentary copy of the German one. 

Whatever may have been the value of the work it was essentially 
original from cover to cover, and it embodied the experience of the best 
part of my professional life. It was pubhshed, unfortimately, just before 
the full development, or adoption, of the aseptic treatment as applied to 
abdominal surgery. In this respect the work was considered by some not 
full enough in detail, and yet I am still of the opinion that I taught the 
essentials. I was judged not to be siifficiently advanced in my teaching, 
as I did not fully endorse all the surgical procedures of the period, 
but time has certainly sustained my judgment. A fourth edition of 
this work was never called for, and fortunately, as I might have laid 
myself open to the charge of plagiarism. For everything I taught and 
originated of special importance has gradually become absorbed into 
the practice of the profession during the past twenty-five years, and 
incorporated into every new book as common property, so that the 
origin of much, except with the student of medical Hterature, has been 
lost so far as it will bear any relation to my name. I simply place the 
fact on record and without complaint, as I can truthfully hold that no 
part of my life's work was done with the object of adding to my personal 
reputation or profit. My desire was that my experience and teaching 
should do the greatest amount of good, and I am thankful that to so 
great a degree my efforts have been successful. 

One of the first letters I received congratulating me on this work was 
from an old friend. Dr. John Scott, an Englishman by birth, of San 
Francisco, a man of neither originaHty nor bright mind, but noted for 
his good judgment and reliability, especially from a professional stand- 
point. His judgment was: 



264 Incidents of my Life 

You have made the whole subject of the diseases of women too plain, 
and omitted to point out that success in this branch demands far more general 
knowledge than is needed by the general practitioner, and infinitely more 
dexterity than the average surgeon possesses. The result must be that every 
brainless man in the profession, who was unable to earn a living, will be con- 
vinced, on reading the book, that he was especially qualified by Nature for 
a gynecological specialist, and you have laid open the way for profit to every 
quack in the land! 

Solomon himself could not have given utterance to words of greater 
wisdom, as the result has shown. But I must plead guiltless of any 
other desire than the wish to encourage all who were competent to 
make an effort to relieve the suffering of those within their reach. 

December 26, 1879, I became a member of the Irish Relief Committee 
for the United States, which acted in connection with the Mansion 
House Committee of Dublin, formed for the relief of the Irish people 
then suffering from great want and distress. It was an active committee 
and did good work — Hon. Charles P. Daly, President, Henry L. Hoguet, 
Treasurer, and Richard O 'Gorman, Secretary. The other members of 
the committee were: Wm. R. Grace, Robert Sewell, Eugene Kelly, 
Thos. Barbour, James Lynch, Wm. Watson, and myself. Of this com- 
mittee I believe Mr. Hoguet was the last to join the majority and within 
a recent period. Many could have been better spared, as he M^as inde- 
fatigable in his work among the Catholic charities. He could always be 
relied upon to be punctual, and seldom missed attending a committee 
meeting. 

From my earliest childhood I had acquired immunity from tobacco 
and in time I both sm^oked and chewed, as every man and half-grown 
boy at the South, as well as at the North, with very few exceptions, 
did at that time, and in Virginia nearly all the elderly women in- 
dulged in a private smoke. Throughout the mountainous sections and 
elsewhere many of the "poor whites" then "dipped," as it was termed, 
by rubbing their gums with a stick of some soft wood, the end of which 
had been chewed and then dipped in a special preparation of snuff. 
Those who dipped were generally "dirt-eaters" also, from chewing 
and swallowing a light lead-colored clay to be found throughout the 
country, and I suppose prompted bj'- the same craving as possesses 
the chewing-gum fiends of the present day. Among these people is 
found the hookworm disease, which of late has been attracting so much 
attention. From overwork and needing the sustaining effect, I must 
have acquired the habit of using tobacco in excess, although I was never 
conscious of any bad effects until I began to suffer from irregular action 
of my heart, and the evidence on two occasions satisfied me that I must 



Breaking-up the Tobacco Habit 265 

give up its use. One evening, the other members of the family having 
gone out leaving my wife and me alone in the parlor, I gave up my regular 
work and spent the evening with her. In an interval of conversation, 
as we had been reading for some time, my heart suddenly gave a bounding 
impulse and I went out of my chair unconscious and straight out, as a 
frog would leap from a bank. My terrified wife picked me up as I 
became conscious. I was none the worse beyond skinning the end of my 
nose, from having come in contact with the carpet. A few days after 
I had a call from an old friend, and at the end of a very pleasant visit I 
accompanied him to the front door. I bade him good-night and just 
as he was in the act of stepping off the door-sill, with the door half- 
closed between us, my heart gave the same leap and I fell unconscious 
against the door, which shut with a slam. As soon as I regained my con- 
sciousness, I opened the door, but he had time enough to gather himself 
up and to have disappeared. As he was so close to the door I knew 
as it slammed it had impinged on the nearest and projecting portion of 
his body, as he bent forward in stepping down. The effect had been as 
if I had given him a kick, sending him down the stoop several steps at 
a time, leaving him sprawling in the gutter. When I called to apologize 
next day there was a certain wild expression in his eye, showing a mistrust, 
and the need of a good deal of conciliation before he could be convinced 
that he was not in close relation with one suffering from acute mania. 
In time I got near enough to shake his hand and we had a good laugh 
over the whole circumstance. 

I made up my mind that it was absolutely necessary to give up 
tobacco and without compromise, and I realized the fallacy of attempting 
gradually the breaking-up of the habit. I now had to deal with myself, 
and to make the greatest effort of self-denial I was ever called on to 
effect, and nothing but my determination to be my own master enabled 
me in about three months to break up the tobacco habit. No amount 
of enjoyment from any gratification could compensate for the misery 
and suffering I endured from craving for its stimulation, and suffering 
from the want of sleep. Hour after hour would I walk back and forth 
from one room to another, and as my poor wife could not sleep she would 
often put on her wrapper to walk with me and attempt by her cheerful- 
ness to quiet and encourage me. When exhausted, I would throw 
myself in a chair and possibly sleep for half an hour, and then begin 
again to walk. During the day, while restless, I was diverted b}^ my 
work and got on fairly well but at night nothing but the suffering and 
the torment of the damned could express what I went through. 

Now, after the interval of so many years, I frequently have the desire 
to smoke and physicians have advised me to resume the habit. It is 



266 Incidents of my Life 



claimed that the moderate use of tobacco would have a beneficial effect 
on the present action of my heart. But nothing would induce me again 
to put myself in a position where I could be no longer my own master 
without having to make an equal effort to gain the supremacy. 

For writing The Principles and Practice of Gynaecology I received the 
degree of Doctor of Laws in 1882 from the Jefferson University, the 
Trustees of the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, being the Govern- 
ing Board, The academic department of this University, situated at 
Canonsville, Pennsylvania, has been in active operation for over a hundred 
years. This institution has conferred this degree, I have been informed, 
but five times, and then only on graduates from the medical department. 
This honor I shared with Dr. Marion Sims, who graduated in 1836. 

I spent the summer of 1880 abroad, as I did for the following twelve 
or thirteen years. I began now to study the condition of Ireland, from 
personal observation, and found it one of destitution to an almost 
incredible degree and of unnecessary suffering, directly due to mis- 
government and neglect of every interest pertaining to the welfare of 
the country. I found the neglect of official dutj^ was not due alone to 
indifference, but the evidence presented showed malicious forethought 
during a period of hundreds of years, to degrade the people and to im- 
poverish the country. The record of England's treatm.ent of Ireland, 
since the days of the Normans, is unique and stands out in indelible 
characters, characterized by rapine, murder, and systematic robbery 
for the whole period. Notwithstanding necessity has forced a change 
of policy of late years and the crime may be forgiven by the people as God 
has commanded, yet the treatment of Ireland by English officials can 
never be forgotten. 

For the past twenty years the condition of Ireland has been one of 
daily thought for me, and in that time, during many days, it has occu- 
pied part of every hour of my wakefulness. It has been a period of 
close observation and study, and to gain an accurate, knowledge of the 
past has involved an incredible amount of labor. In every generation 
some work has been written in England's interest, and with her crafty 
forethought she has succeeded in misleading the world at large as to the 
truth, not only in regard to her course, but also as to her responsibility 
for the existing ignorance of the world as to the Irish people and their 
aspirations. Above all, she alone is responsible for the religious bigotrj'- 
which exists among all English-speaking people, and for the innate feeling 
of contempt which in the past seems rife with every generation as to 
the "low Irish," and especially for those of the Catholic faith! If the 
uncharitable course of England toward the Irish people could be centred 
in the relation of any one individual toward another, even the merciful 



Service for Ireland 267 

God cotild not, in the absence of contrition, save the sinner from damna- 
tion. Are the laws of God as appHcable to a nation as to individuals? 
If so, what is in store for England's future? The hangman in Ireland 
for centuries was as busy in burning every book written in Irish interests 
as he was in the exercise of his vocation, consequently time, labor, and 
money have to be freely expended in collecting the necessary evidence 
against England from an Irish standpoint. So systematically was the 
destruction of Irish books carried out, that the most important ones 
can only be picked up in the second-hand book-stalls of Europe, and 
then only after great delay. 

I made the acquaintance of Mr. Charles Stewart Parnell at the be- 
ginning of his career, and while I admired his great talent and gave him 
full credit for patriotism, yet, possibly from some defect in my own 
organization, I felt I never could trust him. I took no prominent or 
public part in Irish affairs during his leadership, beyond contributing 
what I could to the raising of means for the use of the National party 
abroad. Shortly after the organization of the Hoffman Hoiise Com- 
mittee for raising money, I became a member and during its existence 
my relation with Mr. Eugene Kelly, the president, was most friendly. 
But, at my request, I was never called upon to take any prominent 
position so long as Mr. Parnell remained the leader. Very few persons 
but my personal friends knew I was a constant attendant at the meetings, 
for I was yet unknown by sight to most of those who were then taking 
an active part in Irish affairs. It was not until nine years had passed, 
when it became necessary that Mr. Parnell should cease to be at the 
head of the National party, that I began to take in public a part as a 
leader. 



Chapter XX 



Visit to the west coast of Ireland — I was under constant supervision of the police — Visited 
Dr, Madden in Dublin — Obtained from him much information ia relation to the family, 
and of places of interest ia connection — Employed Sir Bernard Burke to make a search 
among the records of Ireland and England in relation to the family — This material was 
utilized in writing The Emmet Family, which was published subsequently — Visited 
the different houses and places coimected with the family history pointed out by Dr. 
Madden, and had them photographed — Dr. Madden presented to me the original death- 
mask taken by Petrie of Robert Emmet — Its subsequent history — ^While at work with 
Dr. Madden and the photographer, I was notified to leave Dublin — The first Land Act was 
presented by Mr. Fortescue and not by Gladstone, as generally thought— Mr. Gladstone, 
however, was able to make use of it — This was the most important measure ever passed by 
England in relation to Ireland — It accomplished but little of itself, but it was a justifica- 
tion of Ireland and rendered possible any steps in the future — To do justice to Ireland I 
made a great effort to advance the progress on my book Ireland under English Rule, 
that it might serve the cause of Home Rule — Certain defects of character in the Irish 
people considered — What has been accomplished by means of the United Irish League 
and revival of the Irish language — The Fenian movement accomplished more than all the 
others for the advancement of the Irish cause — The opinion of John Boyle O'Reilly as to 
physical force — The use of dynamite considered — The execution of a Coercion Act in 
Ireland was a degradation for the Irish people — If an attempt is ever made to enforce 
another Coercion Act in Ireland, dynamite will be freely used in their defence — The 
evicted tenants — Visited the Continent, became ill — Broke my leg at Glengariff, Ireland — 
Obliged to return home — Delay resulted in shortening and permanent lameness — Police 
in Ireland — A constant cause of disorder — The treatment of my children by them — My 
youngest son meets Mr. Gladstone — An interesting incident in coimection — Mr. Parnell 
and my impression of him — Joseph Biggar a remarkable man — The Irish people should 
never forget the services of these two men. 



HAD corresponded with Dr. Richard R. Madden, 
the author of The Lives of the United Irishmen, 
but had not known him personally until the summer 
of 1880, although I had seen him in my boyhood. 
He acted as the commissioner and representative 
of the negroes in the British West Indies, after their 
emancipation, and about 1841, on his return after 
completing his work in the West Indies, he visited New York and became 
acquainted with the Emmet family. At the time of my first visit, before 




Chapter XX 



t of Ireland — I was under constant supervision of the police — Visited 
tiblin — Obtained from him much information in relation to the family, 
c- ^, interest in connection — Employed Sir Bemr-^ rj.._i- .. ., ,..,i- 
fecords of Ireland and England in relation to t '■ 

■:^Titing Thr Emivt Fa^ri'- ^rV,;^h ^-a.; pu- : 



Land Act was 

Robert Emmet t Obd.tone, 



J . Death mask taken, by Petrie, after his execution 



ei LOereioii .\LL ; 

..;d ■cnants — V^isitcil 

:;cr to return home — 

<V i — A constant o c treatment oi my children by them — My 

iu ■ ion meets Mr. f sting incident in coimection — Mr. Pamell 

. my impression of hii -:-mr--' ' ■ ■ t"^-- '' ' " ■ '- should 

«^r forget the servicf 



KA»V«3«*i«" 



Visited Dr. Madden 269 

going to Dublin, I spent some time investigating the condition of the 
people on the west coast, and soon after leaving Queenstown I became 
aware of being under the supervision of the police, and the same interest 
in my affairs was kept up during my stay in Ireland. I obtained from 
Dr. Madden much information in connection with the actors in the 
troubles of 1798, with which he was particularly familiar. I also gathered 
from him much in reference to the places about Dublin connected with 
the family. When I returned home and had time to appreciate the 
importance of the information I had acquired, it stimulated me to ac- 
quire more, — so I returned the following summer and employed Sir 
Bernard Burke, the Ulster King-at-Arms, living in Dublin, to make a 
systematic search of all the records in Ireland and England, and to 
procure for me an official copy of every document in which the name of 
Emmet appeared. From the records of this search, extending over eight 
or nine years, I was able to write The Emmet Family, with Some Incidents 
Relating to Irish History, etc. With the aid of Dr. Madden, I was able 
to obtain through the assistance of Mr. Chandelier, the photographer, 
of Dublin, views of all the places of interest connected with the family. 
A number of these houses were destroyed in the following year or two, 
and these views served as valuable illustrations for The Emmet Family. 
I was refused permission to photograph the room in the Green Street 
Court House, in which Robert Emmet and all other political prisoners 
had been tried during the past one hundred and fifty years or more. 
But a twenty shilling gold-piece satisfied the conscience of an official 
one Sunday afternoon and enabled me to accomplish my purpose. Dr. 
Madden gave me the original plaster death-mask of Robert Emmet, 
taken by the elder Petrie, but I was unwilling to take it out of the 
country, and the doctor promised me to place it in the National Museum 
to insure its preservation. I had Chandelier have a plaster copy made 
for me. When Dr. Madden died the original was sold among his effects, 
as he had evidently, from his advanced age, forgotten his promise to me. 
I employed Trainor, the bookseller, near Essex Bridge in Dublin, to 
attend the sale with an unlimited bid to procure the mask for me. Trainor 
became frightened after bidding it up to two hundred and fifty dollars, 
and it was knocked down to the late Dr. Kinney, the member of Parlia- 
ment and later the Coroner for the city of Dublin. On the sale of Dr. 
Kinney's effects, Mr. John D. Crimmins of New York obtained it and 
generously presented it to me, and I, in return, gave him the duplicate 
in my possession. 

Dr. Madden possessed nearly a hundred of these masks, taken by 
Petrie, of individuals of historic interest who lost their lives in connection 
with the uprising of 1798, and these he kept stored in his stable. The 



270 Incidents of my Life 



doctor told me, that, one rainy day, his coachman, having nothing 
special to do and being in possession of a pot of white paint which had 
been nearly dried up, gave each mask a coating of this paint, as they 
had become discolored by exposure. The successors of Chandelier 
have, however, sold at least five "original" casts by Petrie which I have 
heard of, and although the marks of the brush are shown as if painted, 
there is nothing on the surface. There was great difficulty, on account 
of this paint, in obtaining the first impression as a satisfactory copy, and 
each since has been of less value. 

For several days I had taken Dr. Madden out in an open landau, 
with the photographer and instrument upon the box, alongside the 
driver. I, as usual, was under police observation, but Dr. Madden, 
who had resided out of the city for some years, and the photographer 
were too much for them, and as they could not determine what deviltry 
or treason I was up to, I was advised to leave the next day. It gave 
me great pleasure to inform the agent of the police that I had made all 
my arrangements, even to engaging my passage for the following day, 
as I had in a most satisfactory manner accomplished the object of my 
visit. 

I had suspected that I was under observation, but as I was accom- 
panied by two lady members of my family, they had kept in the 
background. 

Lord Morley in his Life of Gladstone shows that the principles em- 
bodied in the Land Act, passed in January, 1870, did not originate with 
Mr. Gladstone. The claim for the rights of tenants in the land is due 
to Mr. Chichester Fortescue, an Irishman and the Irish Chief Secretary, 
who as early as 1866 and again in 1867 introduced bills into Parliament 
based on these views. Mr. Gladstone, however, recognized the im- 
portance of the principle and through his influence alone was the bill 
passed in 1870. The policy of the bill as tersely explained by Mr. 
Gladstone, was : "To prevent the landlord from using the terrible weapon 
of undue and unjust eviction, by so framing the handle that it shall cut 
his hands with the sharp edge of peciiniary damages." 

Eleven years after, as another step in advance, the Bill of 1881 was 
passed through Mr. Gladstone's influence. I have shown elsewhere' 
that in my opinion more can be claimed for the importance of the bill 
passed in 1870 than has yet been attributed to it. I believe in the future 
the popular judgment wiU be that it was the most important and far- 
reaching measure ever legalized by the British Parliament in the relations 
of England and Ireland. 

The bill itself accomplished but little at the time, as the needs of 

• Ireland under English Rule, Second Edition, vol. ii., page 202. 



Home Rule for Ireland 271 

Ireland were yet but imperfectly known to those who passed it, and, 
as Mr. Gladstone stated, those who represented Ireland in Parliament 
were not consulted. But it was the entering wedge, after the passage 
of which it became possible, as well as incumbent upon future adminis- 
trations, to do more for the rehef of Ireland. Between the date of its 
passage as a law to that of the last act for Ireland — the Land Purchase 
Bin of 1903 — England, through the legal utterance of her Parliament, 
the highest authority in the land, has vindicated Ireland by these acts. 
By their passage she has made a tacit acknowledgment of her misrule 
in Ireland from the beginning, and thereby the continued struggles of 
the Irish people in protest during the past centuries have been justified. 
Every change yet to be acquired for Ireland, even to that of total separa- 
tion from the Empire, is now possible. 

After the defeat of Mr. Gladstone's Home-Riile Bill for Ireland by 
the House of Lords, I labored incessantly to obtain the material for my 
work on Ireland, for which I had not yet selected a title. But I con- 
ceived the absolute necessity for such a book to advance the cause of 
Home Rule, to create public opinion and thus educate the people. 
The sub- or second title of the book was equally necessary, as in a Plea 
for the Plaintiff I obtained a wider range for presenting the case than 
I could have exercised in a work of a more formal historical character. 
I hoped my work would reach the American native bom and indirectly 
the English reader, and if possible the Irish people, who are yet most 
ignorant of their own current history. While all know of the suffering, 
but few of them have any knowledge of how much cause they have to be 
proud of their former advanced civilization with an authentic history, 
wanting in many details from the destruction of the records by the 
English, but yet what has been preserved is older than that of any other 
country in being. To this ignorance has been due the constant unrest 
of the Irish people in the past. From not being a reading people and 
being in ignorance, they were restless from the desire "to be doing 
something"; a disposition which has been a constant menace to the 
success of their own cause. Ireland was for thousands of years divided 
up among a certain munber of clans who were at war constantly with 
each other. A native of the South could not understand the existence 
of any common interest with an Irishman from Ulster, or with any one 
beyond the influence of his clan. This indifference has divided the Irish 
people from a period before the coming of the Normans. But for its 
existence the English would never have obtained a foothold, and at any 
time within the past three hundred years they coiild have been driven 
out of the coimtry by a united people. 

Many of the Irish leaders have now been convinced that until this 



272 Incidents of my Life 

feeling of clanship could be broken up, and until its influence had been 
eradicated, it was impossible to engender any national feeling among 
the people. 

A national spirit was believed to be equally impossible to create 
among a people who had lost their mother tongue, as the Irish had in 
the use of their language. Many believed from the loss of their national 
tongue the Irish could never hope for nor aspire to ever being more than 
West Britons. 

An heroic effort has been made during the past fifteen years to revive 
a knowledge of the Irish language, that it might become a living one 
in Ireland, and in this move an imprecedented revolution has been 
effected, not only in the revival of the language but in uniting the people. 
The United Irish League has been formed and through its influence 
the sectional prejudices of the past have been nearly obliterated. 

At the present time a larger proportion of the people have become 
banded together, with the determination of obtaining self-government 
for Ireland, than has ever been accomplished before in any revolution, 
or by any political party. It has taken fully twenty years of persistent 
labor on the part of the national leaders to accomplish their purpose. 
The condition has been created where the Irish leaders hold the balance 
of power between the two parties, and England must grant to Ireland 
within the near future whatever the Irish people may demand, short of 
dismemberment of the Empire. 

The greatest difficulty I encountered in the study of the Irish question 
was to understand the incentive of the leaders in the Fenian movement 
with so little preparation. The only conviction every Irishman must 
come to, interested in the development of his country, is the belief that 
England wiU never make the slightest concession for the benefit of 
Ireland through any impulse but one of fear. If this be true the con- 
clusion must naturally follow that a resort to physical force is the only 
remedy ! 

Few persons, however, go beyond the first conclusion reached in 
the consideration of any question, and it is only done by those who have 
been trained to seek by deduction the ultimatimi. It can be conceded 
that every man of Irish birth who is interested in the prosperity of 
Ireland, holds in common the conviction that, if the Irish people are 
ever to gain anything for the advance of Ireland, they must make the 
effort to help themselves. So far there is no dissent; for those who go 
beyond this point the difference lies as to time and expediency for 
action. Therefore, the Fenian movement was a natural one with the 
many among a most impulsive people, of whom some one has written: 
"They were too brave a people to think of consequences." 



The Fenians and Dynamite 273 

But John Boyle O'Reilly, who had suffered, finally reached the 
conclusion: "Instead of a hopeless, but heroic pike against a long- 
range rifle, Ireland has learned to depend upon a weapon that carries 
farther than a cannon, — patient explanation. Instead of striking 
her enemy in the face as of old, and getting strangled in the dark, 
Ireland arraigns the oppressor before mankind and asks the world for a 
verdict." 

When the Fenians acted from the spirit of their convictions and while 
the movement seemed an ill-judged and futile one, they were mis- 
judged by those who gave no thought to consideration of the subject 
from the Fenian standpoint. The dentmciation of Dr. Moriarty, 
Bishop of Kerry, that: "Hell is not hot enough, nor eternity long enough 
to punish the miscreants" was equally unjust. 

The use of dynamite was an after- thought, as it were, in the move- 
ment and as a desperate resort employed by a desperate people. The 
use of this agent was universally and naturally denounced by those who 
had not looked on the other side of the shield, while no one could foresee 
the benefit which was to result from its use. 

Before going farther, I will state that the reader has my sympathies 
if there be no special interest in Irish affairs. But I became so thoroughly 
imbued with Irish interests after my visit to Europe in 187 1 that all 
the reminiscences of my life, after that date, would have to be left out 
if my connection with Irish affairs had to be omitted. Moreover, to 
the end, or so long as the Almighty, in His mercy, leaves my mental 
capacity tmimpaired and gives me the strength to wield a pen, both will 
be devoted to the service of dear old Ireland, whose interests have long 
since become part of my second nature. 

Without criticising David's judgment as to .the tendency in human 
nature to he, I will state that I have foim.d the disposition to misunder- 
stand is equally great. That my views may not be misunderstood I 
will repeat what I have already written on this subject.^ The Fenian 
movement we now know served a good purpose, and the use of dynamite, 
which from the ordinary standards of civilization is an unjustifiable 
expedient under all circumstances, nevertheless proved of infinite use 
to the Irish cause. So indifferent had the public men of England become 
to Ireland's cry and so deaf to every claim of justice, that no ordinary 
appeal had any effect. The use of dynamite was the first and the only 
means which ever roused sufficiently the interest of England in the affairs 
of Ireland. Mr. Gladstone had already employed coercion, — England's 
only remedy for an outbreak. Yet Mr. Gladstone always held that the 
fact of resorting to so desperate a means of retaliation first prompted 

' Ireland under English Rule, Second Edition, vol. ii, pages 145-149. 
18 



274 Incidents of my Life 

his investigation of the existing provocation, of which he had had only 
a limited knowledge. 

It is a sad comment upon the provocation given, to place on record 
that within a few years men have undergone a great change of opinion 
in regard to the justifiability of the use of dynamite by the people of 
Ireland, as a munition of war, under certain circumstances. This change 
has occurred among men in this country and in Ireland who have been 
particularly noted for their conservatism, and who are God-fearing and 
law-abiding citizens. The danger of its future use certainly exists, 
should Home Rule not take a more tangible form than a hope deferred ; 
and if England should again declare war against Ireland by enforcing 
another Coercion Act, to the degradation of the Irish people, the free 
use of dynamite wiU be held justifiable by an outraged people, as their 
only remaining means of self-defence. This view is not considered a 
justification for the individual who takes the law in his own hands; for 
him no punishment which can be administered on earth is adequate. 
But its use by the people at large under proper direction wiU not be 
considered murder, when all law in the land has been suspended by the 
Coercion Act, and none but martial law exists, which is without warrant 
from the Irish people. 

When innocent persons suffer by its use the result will be deplored, 
but their death will be regarded as no more a murder than the action 
of a soldier in battle, who as a premeditated act takes deliberate aim 
at the enemy and causes the death of persons innocent in every relation 
to himself personally. 

The writer, moreover, has heard the use of dynamite advocated on the 
plea of humanity. This is not an unreasonable position as any one 
will admit who knows what coercion meant to the Irish people, with all 
the license and brutality of the military and constabulary forces, with 
the horrors of English prisons and the destruction of life under all circum- 
stances. The truth, it is held, rests upon the certainty of the result 
that from the moment every one responsible for coercion realizes his 
life is in jeopardy, the act will be repealed promptly. 

History teaches at every turn that fear of consequences has been the 
only incentive to the exercise of mercy and justice in Ireland. 

If we attempt to pass judgment on the acts of those who resorted to 
the use of dynamite, in justice we must make an effort to understand 
their incentive. No man can doubt their sincerity of purpose, shown 
by the readiness with which they sacrificed their lives for the success 
of a cause more dear to them. These men were not the bloodthirsty 
monsters which those in sympathy with England would have us believe, 
for evidence is not wanting that in private life they were in no degree 



Conditions in Ireland 275 

deficient in the attributes of humanity. They were desperate men, 
rendered desperate by the sufferings of their people, who had for cen- 
turies maintained a seemingly hopeless struggle to obtain justice by 
any other means from a merciless oppressor. 

In time of war acts are justified which would be deemed murderous 
if committed during the existence of peace, But war has existed between 
the greater portion of the Irish people and the English Government for 
over six hundred years, and no one can hold in truth that peace has had 
any existence in Ireland during that period. The war has been waged 
in the same relentless manner on both sides, the struggle being merely 
more active at times. In turn some part of the country has been under 
martial law for centuries, and, at the beginning of this century, over 
more than half of Ireland all civil law had been arbitrarily suspended. 
Moreover, at no time during the English occupancy has civil law ixni- 
versally prevailed throughout the country. Would this be the case in 
any civilized country during a period of peace? 

The justification of these men rests on the facts stated, and he who 
would deny the existence of grievous provocation, from their standpoint, 
is hopelessly blinded by prejudice. 

It will be claimed that at the present time, at least, peace exists 
in Ireland and particularly since the last Coercion Act was repealed. 
Under the circumstances peace should exist, but it does not and can not 
until the interests of all, from the highest to the lowest in the land-, are 
equally protected by law. 

Justice under the guise of law has stalked through Ireland for cen- 
turies in nude and brazen effrontery, and she is only less unjust to-day 
from expediency, if not fear. Can any one in truth claim that the 
Catholics, who form an overwhelming majority of the people of Ireland, 
have yet the same protection in their rights as the Protestant minority? 
Are not the Catholics still excluded as jurors, is not the jury-box still 
packed in every part of the country, as of old, so far as it is deemed 
prudent to do so, and are not Catholics, as such, yet excluded by the same 
prejudice and bigotry from every office and position, so far as any in- 
fluence can be exerted to accomplish the purpose? 

Nothing but a truce exists at the present time between Ireland and 
England, and there can be no final peace until Ireland has gained the 
power to compel Justice to rebandage her eyes and to steady her scales 
with an even hand, so that all may hereafter be equally protected in 
their rights. 

During the period of Mr. Gladstone's first term of office as Premier, 
and while the Coercion Act was being enforced with a merciless hand, 
the suffering of the people was greatly intensified by the increased number 



276 Incidents of my Life 

of evictions, which were then being carried out with the aid of the 
government. Mr. John Dillon and Mr. Wm. O'Brien now came into 
more prominence from the service rendered by them to the evicted 
tenants. The rents had been gradually raised to an exorbitant price 
and were far greater than the rate paid in England, or in any portion 
of Europe, for the most fertile land used for agricultural purposes; 
while in Ireland, as a rule, no land under ctdtivation was able to produce 
enough to pay the rent exacted and at the same time to furnish the 
means of support for the tenant. 

By the advice of Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien the tenants were urged 
to pay no rent under these circumstances, or until a reasonable reduction 
had been made. Consequently, the people were evicted in greater 
numbers, their hovels were destroyed, and the land rented at an increased 
price for cattle-raising. Finally the number of tenants evicted reached 
so large a number that the leaders of the Irish party had to make a direct 
appeal to this country for their relief. The organization of the Hoffman 
House Committee was effected for the purpose of obtaining the needed 
funds, and different Irish members of Parliament were sent to this country 
to educate the people by their speeches as to the need of help for the 
national cause. 

I went abroad in June, 1899, to recuperate my strength of body and 
to gain rest of mind from the intense strain to which I had been subjected 
on -account of my professional work and worry about the condition of 
Irish affairs. 

The season proved a cold one, and almost from the beginning to the 
end it was from day to day a period of constant care and anxiety for 
me on account of our health. It seemed almost incredible that such 
a series of mishaps would fall to the lot of one within so short a time 
and in the ordinary course of current events. I was accompanied by 
three grown children, and within two weeks after our arrival one was 
seized with an attack of pneumonia at The Hague and in a month we 
visited Ems, where two of us became ill and were confined several weeks 
to the bed, so that in the course of a little over two months we all 
suffered in turn and the season passed without being able to travel. 

During three months, with the exception of about two weeks, a day 
was not passed without being detained by the illness of some one of the 
party. At length the time approached for our return home and I 
decided to visit Glengariff, on the west coast of Ireland, where I had 
always derived great benefit from the air. We arrived Saturday night 
and coming down-stairs next morning a little early for hearing mass, 
at which a bishop stopping in the house would officiate, I started out 
with one of my sons for a short walk and had gone but a few hundred 



Break my Leg and Return Home ^'j'] 

yards when I slipped from the rolling of a small pebble, and in falling 
broke my leg. We were to sail on the following Wednesday and I 
telegraphed to all the different steamer offices without being able to get 
any accommodations under two months, and I was obliged to be back 
before that time. Consequently, on Tuesday morning, with my leg 
done up as well as could be in the absence of everything necessary, I 
began my journey by being driven twenty miles in a jaunting-car to the 
nearest railroad station, and with nothing but a broomstick handle, 
with a piece of lath nailed across the end, in the place of crutches. I 
was in constant pain and only reached the steamer through the spirit 
of martyrdom. The passage was one of ten days, with a delay of a 
little over twenty-four hours after my arrival; seventeen days elapsed 
before my leg was properly set and in plaster. After it was put up I 
was perfectly comfortable, and with the aid of a pair of crutches I was 
able to get about and attend to my business. 

When the plaster was removed at the end of three months the result 
was a failure, as the leg was crooked and three or four inches shorter than 
the other. I managed, however, to get along with the aid of a stick, 
and very few noticed the deformity. Unfortimately I happened to 
stumble a number of times over a small chair in the dark, on going 
into my bedroom. Some one managed to place it there through the 
spirit of doing the wrong thing, a weakness which Artemus Ward attri- 
buted to the "cussedness of human nature," and there was nothing 
else to blame, as no one ever knew who put it there, or who invariably 
brought the chair back after it had been removed from the room. Grad- 
ually the shin bone enlarged from the chronic inflammation set up, 
and in the course of years I have become incapacitated from the in- 
creased weight of the bone and enlarged vessels. When in the upright 
position I can stand but a few moments, so that my locomotion for some 
years has been reduced to only getting about the house with difficulty. 

Within the period of coercion enforced by Gladstone, Mr. Pamell 
and nearly all of the prominent Irish members were imprisoned, par- 
ticularly before an approaching election, to prevent them from instructing 
the people. Martial law existed everywhere and was enforced with 
the greatest brutality. The most arbitrary arrests were made, of men 
and women, and young girls even were thrown into prison for "wearing 
a contemptuous smile"! The jury-boxes were openly packed and in- 
justice was meted out to all but those in sympathy with the English 
Government. 

The arrogance of the constabulary force at this period was so irri- 
tating and conducive to disorder that it was evident they were acting 
under orders, for the purpose of forcing the people to an outbreak. I 



278 Incidents of my Life 

can speak from experience and assert that their insolent bearing could 
never have been equalled in any other country. During my visits to 
Ireland the English officials may have thought it advisable to keep me 
under observation, to which I was perfectly indifferent. Dtuing the 
following summer two of my children were in Ireland, with some friends, 
and whenever they left the house to walk they would be accompanied 
by a policeman on each side and on going out to drive they were followed 
by policemen in a jaunting-car. It was natural, with their American 
appreciation of unrestricted freedom of action, that they gave the police 
all the trouble their ingenuity could devise, from the natural impulse 
of pure fun and deviltry. 

My son while in London was taken on some occasion by one of the 
Irish members to a reception given to, or held by, Mr. Gladstone. As 
his turn came to be presented, hearing his name, Mr. Gladstone took 
my son's arm, and drawing him aside, asked him if he was my son and 
inquired what he was studying at college and stated how much was to be 
expected of him, with other remarks, thus delaying for some minutes 
the presentation of others standing in line. 

At length the storm came as a tornado, to shatter the hopes of the 
Irish people into chaos, and apparently to divide them to such a degree 
that the future seemed a hopeless one. Pamell was displaced and 
Justin McCarthy was chosen to succeed him. 

The writer met Mr. Parnell early in his career, and from the moment 
of their first meeting as stated he was conscious of the existence of a 
mutual feeling of antipathy. He had occasion to meet Mr. Pamell 
several times thereafter in relation to Irish business, and was always 
treated with the greatest courtesy, which at the time was credited to 
Mr. Parnell's over-estimate of the writer's influence at home; otherwise 
the interviews would have been avoided. Consequently he had never 
been an enthusiastic admirer on personal grounds, but he has always 
been desirous of giving him full credit for the services he rendered 
his country, without ever passing judgment on the incentive. He 
has, however, held the opinion, formed at their first interview, that 
had Mr. Parnell ever had the opportunity as a ruler of Ireland, he would 
have been an autocrat and a merciless dictator. Parnell's fall and death 
seemed at the time a death-blow to Ireland's future. Judged from 
to-day, his removal was providential. The Irish people and their 
leaders needed the experience gained in the interval, and it would be 
difficult to show that Mr. Parnell could have contributed any further 
aid to the cause, or that had he lived the Irish people, under his leader- 
ship, could have reached the advantageous position they occupy to-day. 

So far as I care to place myself on record, and in justice to Mr. 



Parnell and Biggar 279 

Parnell and myself, I will quote from my work on Ireland {Ireland under 
English Rule) written and published many years after Mr. Parnell's 
death, when all personal feeling should have been obliterated by time. 
"From the beginning of the present contest for gaining Home Rule for 
Ireland, the names of Charles Stewart Parnell and Joseph Biggar, whose 
names are inseparable, stand out in bold prominence, although Parnell 
originated the method of procedure. Their consummate skiU in par- 
liamentary usage, their dauntless courage and increasing agitation in 
giving prominence to Ireland's wrongs produced far-reaching results. 
Through their eflEorts and of those who assisted them, it became possible 
for the men who followed in their footsteps to gain for Ireland's relief 
concessions which insured a regeneration of the country and self-govern- 
ment. Without especial recognition of the services of Parnell and 
Biggar the writer's work would have seemed not unlike the rendering 
of Hamlet with the principal character left out. 

"Parnell was recognized as the leader, but no one could have secured 
more efficient support than Biggar rendered, while the success of each 
to a great extent depended on the co-operation of the other, and at the 
same time it would have been difficult to have gotten together two other 
individuals so different in every respect. Mr. Parnell succeeded in 
overcoming difficulties which at the beginning of his public career seemed 
an insuperable bar to success, as he succeeded in gaining the position 
of being the most noted leader of his day. Yet, in consequence of his 
indomitable energy and self-reHance, his contempt for public opinion 
and disregard for the views of those associated with him, he showed a 
lack of judgment unfitting him for retaining the position. Mr. Biggar 
supplied to a remarkable degree what was wanting in Mr. Parnell, and 
as long as this influence was exercised Parnell was successful from a 
practical standpoint. To say more in relation to Mr. Parnell's public 
life at that time would be an injustice, as much relating to him must 
remain an enigma and nothing more so than the feeling he seemed to 
have shared with Daniel O'Connell, of mistrust if not contempt for the 
Irish people at large. In neither instance was there ever an open avowal, 
so far as the writer has any knowledge, but circumstantial evidence is 
not wanting in either case to indicate its existence, from many cynical 
utterances which have been ascribed to them." 

"The late Mr. Biggar was in appearance as rugged as a bear, but was 
by nature of most kindly disposition. The writer has met with but 
few individuals who equalled him in his many attributes of personal 
attraction, so conducive to lasting friendship. Mr. Biggar was essen- 
tially a man of the people in all his sympathies, and devoted his life to 
public service. With his knowledge of parliamentary law, his courage, 



28o Incidents of my Life 

honesty of purpose, and indefatigable industry, he would have luider all 
circumstances held a prominent place in public life. But his later 
work for the relief of Ireland in directing British legislation by obstruc- 
tion, and which brought him into more prominence, was doubtless 
prompted by Pamell's aggressive spirit, although the methods employed 
were his own. 

"The Irish people should never forget the service rendered by these 
two men." 



* 



.Q.M ,:r9rfifn3 aibbA 2£moriT 



<^>>>-^.-K>'v4^^ '^^. 



Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D. 
From an etching by Max Rosenthal, 1890 




<^>>>o-ri^«^^ '^^. 



Chapter XXI 



Irish convention held in New York, May 7, 1 891— Displacement of Mr. Parnell by the Na- 
tional party — The Irish National Federation of America organized by the convention — 
I was elected president, Mr. Joseph P. Ryan finally secretary, as Mr. James Coleman 
could not serve — Major John Byrne, president of the Board of Trustees, and Mr. Eugene 
Kelly, treasurer — Dr. Wm. B. Wallace, an efficient member of the Board of Trustees and 
a good friend — His life and professional advancement sacrificed for the Irish cause — 
Went abroad— While at Glengariflf communicated with Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien who 
were being released from imprisonment — My advice followed, and was the means of 
turning Irish affairs into another channel — Lord Aberdeen given a large public dinner by 
the Federation — Private dinner by myself to Lord and Lady Aberdeen — Mass meeting 
of the Federation at Cooper Union, March 28, 1892 — Turbulent meeting; order restored 
by three hundred policemen, followed by a successful meeting. — Archbishop Corrigan's 
course a praiseworthy one — Attended a meeting at Scranton, Pa. — Met Mr. Powderly 
who presided— Mass meeting held March 26, 1893, at the Academy of Music, in Irving 
Place — An eloquent address on Irish affairs by Mr. Bourke Cochran — Successful in 
raising funds — Just before the general election in Great Britain received a cablegram from 
Mr. Dillon asking assistance — In a few hours cabled a credit for fifty thousand dollars, 
which paid all the election expenses for the Irish party and returned Mr. Gladstone to 
power by the seventy-two Irish members elected — An important incident in the unwritten 
history relating to modern Irish politics^Mr. Kelly's most generous contribution on this 
occasion, with that of Major Byrne — Organization soon weakened and finally destroyed 
by dissension abroad— Public letter to Lord Salisbury — Went abroad with the hope of 
promoting harmony among the leaders— Not successful — Letter to Mr. Justin McCarthy 
and to other members of the party — All subscriptions to the Federation stopped— Letter 
to the New York Sun in relation to the subscription sent to the Irish party by Mr. 
Gladstone and Lord Tweedmouth — Meeting held at the Lyceum, Madison Avenue, Oct. 
17, 1894 — Addressed by Mr. Edw. Blake, M.P. — Had to be protected by the police — 
An explosive mixture set off in one of the stage boxes, but without doing any damage 
— The meeting yielded a good contribution. 



CONVENTION was held May 7, 1891, at the Hoff- 
man House, New York, by those in sympathy with 
the action of the majority which had displaced Mr. 
Parnell. I attended the meeting, but took no part 
in the proceedings, as I was almost on the verge of 
despair for Ireland's future. 

Seldom in my life have I ever been so placed as 
at this time, when I was unable to map out any course to be followed 

281 




282 Incidents of my Life 

temporarily, imtil the future might direct the proper course. At this 
convention, an organization was effected termed "The Irish National 
Federation of America," for the purpose of aiding in the advance of 
Home Rule for Ireland and for representing in this country the Irish 
people under the leadership of the majority of the Irish members of 
Parliament. I was nominated for the presidency by the committee, and 
Dr. Wm. B. Wallace of New York, after a flattering endorsement as to 
my peculiar fitness for the position, stated he had, moreover, been greatly 
influenced by a conviction that I was "the only man of Irish blood in 
the country who could hold the position as president for twelve hours 
without some one going for his head." 

While my self-conceit did not mislead me as to my fitness for the 
place, I dared not refuse to make at least an attempt, and I accepted the 
position as any other duty I was called on to perform. Mr. James 
Coleman was appointed secretary and Joseph P. Ryan, assistant secre- 
tary. Mr. Coleman, however, had so httle time apparently to attend 
to his duties, that shortly after the Board of Trustees appointed Mr. 
Ryan in his place. Major John Byrne was made president of the Board 
of Trustees and Mr. Eugene Kelly, treasurer. The Board of Trustees 
adopted for the Irish National Federation the motto, "Now or never, 
now and forever." 

From the beginning to the end I must acknowledge how much assist- 
ance was given me by Major Byrne and Mr. Ryan, as they were familiar 
with the condition of affairs and were personally informed as to the 
qualification of every man in New York who took an interest in Irish 
politics. With their aid I was able to overcome many difficulties which 
at first seemed to beset me on every side. The following letter will ex- 
plain the situation': 

89 Madison Ave., N. Y., 

Nov. 15, 1891. 
Dear Mr. Coleman : 

In answer to your letter of Nov. loth and in which you write — "I should 
like to know what is going on. As Secretary I am presumed to know, but I 
do not. Everything is done by the power behind the throne. " 

I would ask how do you expect to know anything of what is going on when 
you have not taken interest enough to find out? 

If you wotild visit your own office occasionally the information you now 
seek could be easily obtained. I know of no "power behind the throne." 
Whatever power exists in the National Federation at present is on top of the 
"throne. " Never was a man left so entirely to his own efforts as I have been. 
With the exception of Mr. Byrne I have received from the other officers 

' Copy of a letter in vol. ii. of the bound records of the Irish National Federation of 
America. 



Irish Federation of America 283 

about as much help as I have had from you, towards bringing about the 
organization. Mr. Ryan has acted under my direction and without his help 
we would in the end have been a laughing stock for the public. 

I am happy to inform you that our work is nearly completed and in a few 
weeks more I expect to be able to call a meeting of the trustees and report 
the fact, and I have no doubt there will be many to share the credit. 

The Treasurer, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and myself, as 
President of the Federation, are responsible for the money afEairs. As no 
money from outside has yet been received, we are dissatisfied and unwilling 
to carry on the business in such an unbusiness like manner. We thought it 
better to place five thousand to the credit of the Federation and to become 
personally responsible for that amount. The first step was to pay off all the 
small accounts and hence you received a check for the amount you had ad- 
vanced. [In furnishing his office as secretary.] 

Hoping that this explanation will make the matter clear. 

I am very truly yours, 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 

Mr. James S. Coleman. 

Dr. Wm. ,B. Wallace I had not known personally before he intro- 
duced himself and congratulated me on my election as president of the 
Irish Federation, but I had often heard him as a ready speaker on Irish 
affairs. We soon became good friends and one of the few pleasant 
recollections, in connection with my laborious and thankless service in 
the affairs of the Irish Federation of America, is the memory of his friend- 
ship. He was honest, self-sacrificing, noted for his good judgment and a 
man of infinite tact. There was no sacrifice within his power he was not 
only willing to make but did make for the cause of Ireland, and to the 
detriment of his professional advancement. I never met a man with his 
talent more satisfactory in aiding when it was necessary for me to have 
assistance, to aid me in pacifying some one whose feathers needed read- 
justing. His death was pathetic and within a few hours of that of his son, 
a young physician whom he had looked forward to helping him as a bread- 
winner, that he might give the more time to the Irish cause at so critical 
a period, when his services seemed most essential. Peace be with him. 

After the convention adjourned and the affairs of the Federation had 
been gotten into fair working order, I went abroad to study the condi- 
tion of Ireland, to form the acquaintance of many of the new members 
from Ireland in Parliament, and to obtain from them all the information 
which would aid me in my work. 

As soon as the convention adjourned I issued a circular letter to many 
prominent Irishmen, and it was extensively published by the press. 
(See Appendix, Note No. I.) 

When I arrived abroad I found Mr. Parnell had gone to Paris, in 



284 Incidents of my Life 



relation to the Parliamentary Fund which had been transferred there for 
safety, through fear it might be seized by the English Government, and 
found he would not come to any terms to allow of its use for the evicted 
tenants. Dillon and O'Brien were in prison, sentenced to a term of 
imprisonment for some imaginary violation of the law in connection 
with the evicted tenants. Before sturendering themselves they visited 
Paris for the purpose of having a conference with Mr. Pamell on the 
situation and as to the future disposition of the Hoffman House Com- 
mittee Fund. They then returned and surrendered themselves to the 
authorities for the purpose of serving out the term of imprisonment to 
which they had been sentenced. 

Just before their release I happened to be at Glengariff a few days 
before my return to New York. I had been informed that the Pamellites 
had made arrangements to have a coach in waiting outside of the prison for 
the purpose of taking possession of these gentlemen on their release, and I 
determined to defeat their purpose. I wrote to the governor or superinten- 
dent of the prison, stating who I was and that I was acting in the interests 
of the majority with the desire to serve the best interest of the country ; 
that these gentlemen were to be released in a few days, and that I knew 
a movement was on foot to get possession of them by those in sympathy 
with Mr. Parnell; that I wished to inform them of the fact that it was 
not best for the peace of the country, that they should commit themselves 
to any course until they had had time to inform themselves as to the 
situation and changes which had taken place during their imprisonment. 

I received a letter stating that the governor would aid me so far as he 
was able, and that if I would send my letter unsealed he would have it 
delivered outside of the prison, that it might be read before passing the 
outer gate. I wrote to Mr. Dillon, and he and Mr. O'Brien were released 
on the day I left Queenstown for New York. On reaching the steamer 
a telegram was handed me from Mr. Dillon, stating that they had acted 
on my advice, and I gave the telegram for publication to Mr. Barry, a 
National member of Parliament from Cork, who had come out on the 
tender with me. 

I was thus instrumental in turning the current of Irish affairs into an- 
other channel, which in the end, as I had hoped, led to better results than 
would have been the case had Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien at that time 
thrown their influence with the minority. 

On my return home I issued a circular letter to the friends of the 
National Federation, giving some account of the condition of Irish affairs 
as I found them abroad. This letter was published in the New York 
Freeman' s Journal, a copy of which will be found in Appendix, Note No. II. 

In the autumn of 1891 the Earl of Aberdeen arrived in New York 



Lord and Lady Aberdeen 285 

with his wife, who was to take general charge the following year of the 
Irish Exhibit of Industries at the Chicago Exposition. I called to pay my 
respects and to extend an invitation to him from the Board of Trustees 
of the Irish National Federation of America for a public dinner. The 
unanimous resolution of the Board, as expressed in the resolution, was: 
"It is offered to you as a prominent member of the Liberal party of 
England and to mark the highest appreciation of your past services in 
the cause of Home Rule, and for your efforts to better the condition of the 
Irish people." December 8th was decided upon for the dinner, given at 
Delmonico's, on Fifth Avenue. About four hundred persons were present 
including a number of distinguished men from different parts of the 
country. I presided as president of the Federation ; the speeches were all 
good, the decorations Avere in remarkably good taste, and it was altogether 
the best-conducted public dinner I ever saw. It was remarkable that the 
bringing together of some of the most incongruous elements for political 
effect should have passed off without a single disagreeable occurrence. 

A few daj^s after I gave a large private dinner at my residence to Lady 
Aberdeen and her husband, where they met some of the best people in 
New York, who had no connection with Irish affairs. 

March 28, 1892 a public meeting was held in the Cooper Union Hall. 
As a reflection of the trouble caused by less than ten men among the mem- 
bers of Parliament from Ireland, we were opposed by a small minority 
at every turn in this country and by those who seemed to be as blind as 
the members of Parliament as to the damage done to the Irish cause. We 
decided to hold the meeting under all circumstances, and to the credit of 
Archbishop Corrigan he informed me that he would attend, and thought 
it his duty to do so, as he had been informed some of the sympathizers 
with Rev. Dr. McGlynn would attend and had threatened violence. 

On communicating with the district captain of the police and ex- 
plaining the difficulty we anticipated, he sent over three hundred men 
to the meeting. I took the Archbishop down in my carriage, and finding 
several thousand persons assembled in front of the building we drove on 
some distance to the south and returned by a side street to the back 
where I had a policeman stationed to open a door for admission into the 
building. We had secured the attendance of several hundred prominent 
men who were in favor of Home Rule, so that those who filled the plat- 
form gave far more weight to the importance of the meeting than usual. 
As we came on the platform, there seemed to be scarcely standing-room 
in the body of the hall for another individual, and we were received with 
the din of a pandemonium. I read the opening address and was more 
than half way through before I was able to hear a single word, and ex- 
pected to be disabled at any moment by something being thrown at me. 



286 Incidents of my Life 

The police, however, got to work and after throwing out by neck and heels 
several hundred disturbers of the peace, we settled down gradually into 
having a most orderly meeting, at which the full programme was carried 
out. I do not recollect the amount raised, but it was considered a good 
sum under the circumstances, but nothing like the amount which could 
have been obtained under other conditions, and one far short of what 
was needed. We established the fact, however, that we were not afraid 
to have a meeting and could not be intimidated. We gained public 
opinion in our favor and made many friends ; the speeches were unusually 
good and fully reported, with the result that many persons for the first 
time obtained some knowledge of the Irish question. At no time in the 
cause of Irish agitation did the case present so favorable an outlook 
within my experience as it did after this meeting, if we could only have had 
unity among the Irish leaders. With so helpless an outlook, nothing but a 
sense of duty stimulated all of us to continue our efforts to help the cause. 
After the meeting had dispersed, several hundred persons remained 
calling for the Archbishop and for me to come out, and an hour or more 
passed after we had reached home before they were satisfied that we were 
no longer in the building. I had been charged a short time before in some 
of the papers with having written to Mr. Chauncey Depew to persuade 
him against delivering at a public meeting a eulogy on Mr. Parnell. I did 
write a private letter to Mr. Depev/; it was not to dissuade him, but to 
urge that Mr. Parnell should be eulogized to the utmost, as he fully 
deserved it for his past services to the Irish cause. But I asked that he 
would use the occasion to urge the absolute necessity for unity among 
the Irish people. That if the eulogium was simply given and no reference 
made to the disunited condition existing, the impression would be given 
abroad that the faction termed Parnellites embraced a large number in 
this country, which was not the case, that Mr. Gladstone and those 
supporting him would have cause to be discouraged if it was thought the 
majority of those in favor of Home Rule among the Irish people no longer 
supported his efforts. I have not a copy of my letter, but I have found 
the following first draft of it in vol. ii., among the botmd records of the 
Federation. I decided to print the whole of it, as I received several 
letters at the time threatening personal violence in consequence of the 
misrepresentation as to its purpose and contents as given to the press. 

89 Madison Ave., N.Y., 

Nov. 9, 1891. 
[Confidential] 
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew. 
Dear Sir: 

I have seen by the newspapers that you are to deliver the eulogy at 
the memorial meeting to be held at the Academy of Music, Nov. 15th. 



Correspondence 287 

I am a Democrat and have nothing in common with you from a political 
standpoint, and under ordinary circumstances I might rest perfectly satisfied 
to let you take any step you may see fit, which would lessen your influence 
as a public man. But I am at the head of an organization for the purpose of 
advancing the cause of Home Rule for Ireland and represent the greater 
portion of the thinking and law-abiding among the Irish people, both in this 
country and abroad. You will see by the manifesto which I issued when 
elected President of the Irish National Federation of America, what were my 
views in regard to Mr. Parnell. But to-day I have nothing to say against 
the man. Many honest and well meaning men followed his leadership to 
the last, and I do not question their right to do so, or their honesty, but to 
keep up after Mr. Pamell's death the senseless strife engendered by a set of 
men who can not claim even to be leaders, is certainly the height of folly. 
We all have the same interest and will strive to accomplish all that Mr. Parnell 
wished to do up to the time of his death, when by his own act he became, in 
the judgment of an overwhelming majority of the Irish people, unworthy 
of being longer the leader. He was unwilling to give up the power and he had 
a following who were blind in their loyalty and were as regardless of the con- 
sequences. In Ireland, a handftd of men, as it were, for their own personal 
ends have kept up the disorder, and the meeting to be held on the 15th inst. 
is to further the same cause. It is intended that you should draw the crowd 
and their cause shotdd get the credit for numbers and enthusiasm. The 
result may be to disgust a large number of the Irish people and to render them 
lukewarm to the cause, and above all the world abroad will be misled and 
Home Rule may be lost for another generation. You have been misled and 
you may live to regret the false position into which you are about to be placed. 
It is doubtfvil if you could retrace your steps under the circumstances, but 
if you will allow me to make a suggestion you may turn the opportunity into 
one of benefit to yourself, as a public man, and you can render to the Irish 
cause a service the result of which would be incalculable. 

There is not a man who has the slightest sympathy with the Irish cause 
of Home Rule, who would wish it otherwise than Mr. Parnell should have the 
fullest credit given him for his services while he was the leader of the National 
party of Ireland. Therefore, eulogize Mr. Parnell to the utmost degree to 
which you, as an impartial judge, deem him to be entitled. Then, as an 
American and as one disinterested but for the welfare of Ireland, throw the 
great weight of your eloquence into a plea for immediate union, that we may 
all work together again for the common cause which cannot be gained unless 
we all get at it shoulder to shoiilder. Show that the majority must rule, that 
it is suicidal for two branches of the National party of Ireland to exist at the 
present time. That the minority must coalesce with the majority and that 
the reverse is impossible. Point out that the present spirit of faction on the 
part of the minority is but playing into the hands of the enemies to the Irish 
cause. That if the present course be persevered in, even for a few weeks 
longer, the success of Home Rule may be rendered impossible. That in this 
country the Irish people with all the advantages they have gained should not 



288 Incidents of my Life 

lend themselves to the factional strife going on in Ireland. The first thing 
they shoiild have learned in this country was that the majority must always 
govern and nothing but disorder could result if this were not acknowledged. 
Speak of the fact that any moment Parliament may be dissolved and as a 
trick it is likely to be done just when the National party will be the least able 
to stand the burden. That unless Ireland returns a solid delegation she can 
not expect to obtain even from the Liberal party what she should receive. 
To carry on the general election money will be needed and nearly every 
cent which may be obtained must come from this country or Australia. And 
unless we unite without delay the necessary funds can not be raised. 

You may speak of the National Federation which has been organized in 
this country to raise the money needed in Ireland and with no other purpose 
or wish to supplant or interfere with any other organization. 

Thus take a stand in the interest of the whole Irish people, and I believe 
in the near future there will not be a man the world over, with a drop of 
Irish blood in him who will not ask that God's blessing might rest for ever 
on you and your memory. 

Yours very truly, 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 

There was nothing of interest occurring in Irish affairs in connection 
with the Federation during 1892, and well into the following year. But 
the time was fully occupied in organizing branches of the Federation, in 
occasional trips to different places where it was desirable to hold a meeting, 
and if shorthanded, to give some address to encotuage the people and to 
heal dissension among them where it was possible. The most important 
meeting of this kind was a visit to Scranton, Pa., where by travelling 
Saturday and Sunday night, Mr. Ryan and I w'ere able to be present at a 
gathering of some eight hundred miners, with a strong leaning for the 
so-called Parnellites, as Mr. Parnell had on some occasion paid them a 
visit and left a very favorable impression. The meeting was called and 
presided over by Mr. Powderly, the noted leader of organized labor in 
the country. A self-made man and a remarkably intelligent one, I was so 
favorably impressed that I wished I could have seen more of him. On 
account of my name and with a fair, straightforward statement as to the 
condition of Irish affairs, I made so favorable an impression that they 
were brought into line. After the meeting I shook them all by the hand 
and extended the same to each one who had brought a son "to see one 
of the name." For three or four days after my return, I was unable to 
operate in consequence of the hearty shake I got from every father and 
son. It was a most successful meeting pecuniarily and otherwise. 

A mass meeting was held in the old Academy of Music, Irving Place, 
March 26, 1893, to advance the cause of Home Rule by making an 
appeal to the people for the collection of funds. It was one of the largest 



Irish National Federation Meetings 289 

and most enthusiastic meetings ever held under the direction of the 
Federation. The address of the evening was made by Mr. Bourke 
Cochran, who made a most eloquent effort. The governor of every State 
in the Union was invited to attend and each was requested, if he could not 
be present, to give in his answer expression of his views as to Home Rule. 
Every response, with the exception of three or four, which were non- 
committal, expressed a personal interest on the part of the writer in the 
Irish cause. I sent all of these answers to Mr. Gladstone as evidence of 
public opinion in this countr}'- in favor of the Irish cause, and through his 
secretary he expressed to me his great satisfaction and thanks for the 
gratification I had afforded him. 

Shortly before the general election in 1903, when the Liberal party 
was again returned to power, I received a cablegram from Mr. John Dillon, 
who was the National member of Parliament selected by Mr. McCarthy, 
the chairman of the Irish party, to keep in correspondence with the Irish 
National Federation of America. 

Mr. Dillon stated that the treasury was empty and that they would 
have to give up the contest if funds could not be obtained. It was 
threatened that every seat held by a Nationalist from Ireland would be 
contested. Under such circumstances it was necessary to have about 
one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, as in 
Ireland a tax was exacted of from fifteen hundred to a larger sum to be 
paid the county authorities before the name of any candidate could be 
announced. 

I clearly recall the circumstances under which this despatch was 
received. One morning when I was about to undertake a most difficult 
surgical operation in my private hospital, being all dressed for it and my 
hands steriHzed while the patient was being etherized, the despatch was 
brought in and opened by one of the nurses not connected with the opera- 
tion, and held up by her for me to read it. The need of action in reply 
was so imperative I had to delay the operation until I could see the late 
Major John Byrne, the chairman of the Board of Trustees, who lived in 
the neighborhood, and I knew he had not yet gone to his business. I 
gave him the despatch and asked him to see Mr. Kelly, the treasurer, 
and tell him from me that this was the opportunity of his life to insure 
his name going down to posterity in connection with that of Mr. Glad- 
stone ; that he was an old man and could not carry his money with him 
on his death, so I urged him to put up the whole one htmdred and fifty 
thousand dollars, as a successful issue of this election might determine 
Ireland's future. 

Mr. Kelly did not see the matter exactly in the light represented to him, 
nor did I expect him to do so, but he most generously gave twenty-five 



290 Incidents of my Life 

thousand dollars, and Major Byrne added five thousand more. I tele- 
graphed to Philadelphia, I think to Mr. Hugh McCaffrey, the vice-presi- 
dent from Pennsylvania, and got ten thousand, and eight thousand more 
from Boston, with the request that we would advance the two thousand 
to make it ten thousand and the sum advanced would be remitted in a 
few days, but it was forgotten by our Boston friends to do so. 

We had a little less than a thousand dollars in our treasury, having but 
a short time before met the expense of making a personal appeal through 
the mail to over thirty thousand Irishmen throughout the country to aid 
in this election, but got scarcely any response. Mr. Crimmins was 
present at the meeting called that afternoon and generously advanced 
five hundred dollars on the Boston account, as did others in smaller 
amounts, none of which was repaid. The result was that between five 
and six o'clock in the afternoon we were able to cable to Mr. Dillon a 
credit of fifty thousand dollars, with the promise of those at the meeting 
to be personally responsible for the hundred thousand dollars in addition 
if it could not be raised at home. I learned from Mr. Dillon that he 
had gone to bed worn out with anxiety as to the uncertainty of their 
future, when, with the difference of time, he was roused about eleven 
o'clock by a noise on the stairway and knocking on his door. He, or 
some one else, told me that having been arrested and imprisoned before 
without a change of clothing, he took the precaution of emptying a drawer 
into a gripsack, which he had in his hand on opening the door. 

Some of the members had come up from the office to notify him of the 
arrival of the money-credit from New York. A meeting was held and 
before daylight all the necessary arrangements had been made for the 
election. And, as the saying goes, "Money makes money," by the re- 
mittance from New York, with the promise of more if necessary, their 
credit was established so that all further assistance needed was obtained 
among the friends of the candidates. The money received from New 
York insured the election of eighty-two National members from Ireland 
and this gave a small working majority for the Liberal party of about 
fifty votes. 

I sent Mr. Dillon a copy of what I had written and what the reader 
has just read, requesting him to let me know if the statement made was 
correct so far as he could recall the circumstances, for I had written 
entirely from, my recollection. The following is a copy of his letter, so 
far as it relates to the subject under inquiry: 

2 North St. George St., Dublin, 

January 24, 19 10. 
My DEAR Doctor Emmet: 

A thousand apologies for not having answered your letter of 12th December 



Irish National Federation Affairs 291 

promptly. I put off writing, looking up papers and trying to refresh my 
memory, and then the avalanche of election work came on me. 

Unfortunately I have been unable to find any contemporary memorandum 
on the subject of your letter. But there can be no doubt your main points are 
correct. 

I St. That the war chest was empty. 

2d. That we were in the thick of the election of 1892, which brought 
Gladstone back into power, and led to the passage through the House of 
Commons of the first Home Rule Bill of 1893. 

3d. That I was roused out of bed one night by your cabling ten thousand 
pounds; which more than paid the expenses of the election. 

4th. That, but for the arrival of that cable the National party in Ireland 
might have been overwhelmed with disaster. 

Yours very sincerely, 

John Dillon. 

It is a great satisfaction to be able to place on record this evidence 
of good work accomplished by the Irish National Federation of America. 
We can now scarcely realize what would have been the consequences to 
the Irish cause from the defeat of Mr. Gladstone at this particular time, 
which would have been inevitable without the support the National 
members of Parliament received from the Federation, and how many- 
years would have passed before the Irish leaders could have regained their 
position, after the overwhelming disaster which would have followed 
defeat? From what Mr. Dillon has stated it would not be claiming over- 
much that the Federation needed to have done nothing more to fully 
prove the value of the organization, than the saving of this election. The 
result fully compensated all who were engaged for the labor and care 
given to its administration. So perfect had the organization been 
accomplished that it was able in a little over eight hours to place in the 
hands of the Irish leaders a larger sum than has ever been sent at any one 
time before, and the claim would be equally good, if the generous sum 
contributed by Mr. Kelly be excluded. 

The trustees and officers of the Federation who were present at the 
meeting called to authorize the sending of this sum, pledged themselves 
personally to supply the hundred thousand dollars needed, in case the 
election was contested as had been threatened, but in consequence of the 
prompt action in remitting the fifty thousand dollars, we were not called 
upon to make good our pledge. Those in opposition were doubtless 
discouraged from contesting these seats, on learning of our action. 
Moreover, in consequence, as Mr. Dillon states, our remittance was more 
than sufficient to meet the entire expenses of that election for the Irish 
National members of Parliament. 



292 Incidents of my Life 

A few days after five thousand dollars in addition was sent by the 
Federation in case it might be needed, and it was used for the general 
expenses of the National party. 

Sad is the remembrance that all this work and organization was 
destroyed by those who should have been our friends. 

History shows that in Ireland there can be no equanimity of mind on 
any political question, and that always an insignificant minority will 
assert itself, on the principle of never agreeing with the views of the 
majority. On the same principle, if by any misfortune they were left to 
follow their own views, which they seem unable to communicate to 
others, they would find fault among themselves. In this country their 
pretensions would be laughed at, and yet the world is being constantly 
misled by it, as an evidence of a want of union. It has its origin in 
jealousy and mistrust of others, a curse which has rested on Ireland for 
centuries, something England has always fostered and has paid liberally 
for, whenever it has been to her interest to blot out patriotism with a 
bribe. This minority of individuals is always with every national move 
in Ireland and never of it, yet in the past, several of them when endowed 
with more rational promptings, rendered good service to their country. 
They have a perfect right to get up a party for themselves, or join those 
who are in favor of the English Government. But why, as claimed 
Nationalists, do they labor to wreck or rule? This would be a proper 
course to follow with their own party, to serve English interest, since 
at the last election at least they were elected only by the votes of the 
Unionists and Tories, who make no pretence to any interest in Irish af- 
fairs from a national standpoint, and they should be with their friends. 

The New York 5mw, May 4, 1894, published the synopsis of a speech 
delivered by Lord Salisbtiry, the day before at Trowbridge, England. 
This harangue, for it could be termed nothing else, reflected upon the 
American of Irish blood in this country in their efforts to aid the Home 
Rule movement for Ireland. With his usual disregard for fair play, if 
not want of political truthfulness, as was generally his plea in political 
matters, he attempted to mislead the English people. In consequence of 
my position as president of the Irish National Federation of America, I 
felt called upon to answer his statements at some length. The letter 
was published in the New York Sun, May 13, 1904. (See Appendix, 
Note No. III.) 

After the Irish Federation of America had been about two years and 
a half in operation, we had succeeded in establishing between 150 and 
160 branches in different parts of the country, with a bright out- 
look for the futiure. We at that time had been over a year in 
full operation, our regular meetings were harmonious, and those of the 



Lack of Harmony among Irish Leaders 293 

trustees were attended punctually by the members from the different 
States. Mr. Kelly, the treasurer, had begun to receive regular re- 
mittances from the different branches, as all had agreed to pay a small 
sum weekly, and for some time we had been able to send to the Parlia- 
mentary Fund an average of over three thousand dollars a month, with 
every prospect in time of increasing the amount indefinitely. The news- 
papers now began to comment on the want of harmony among the Irish 
leaders in Parliament, for those who were dissatisfied did all in their power 
to magnify the difficulty by appealing to the public through the newspapers. 

This publicity was totally unnecessary and ill-judged while oiu: re- 
ceipts began to decrease from the first announcement of trouble. Find- 
ing that my protest to the authorities of the party and my private letters 
to different members were of no avail, I decided to abandon my business 
and go abroad in September, 1894, to make a personal effort to heal the 
breach. I attended a special meeting of the members of Parliament, 
called at the house of the leader, Mr. Justin McCarthy, in London, to 
meet me, and I gave them a full explanation as to the inevitable ruin 
which must take place of any prospect for additional aid from the 
United States, unless harmony was restored at once. I met privately the 
four or five members who claimed to have cause for dissatisfaction, but I 
was unable to tmderstand the cause of complaint, imless I accepted the 
explanation given by Dr. Watts in one of his hymns, as to the tendency 
of certain animals to bark and bite for 't is their nature to. I pointed 
out the necessity that their disagreements should be kept from the 
knowledge of the public, and that under all circumstances the minority 
must yield to the will of the majority, or they should resign, and that if 
these two rules were not strictly adhered to we would make no further 
effort in the United States to aid them. But after all had been said and 
done, it was evident that the journey I had undertaken at a great pe- 
cuniary loss to myself and on but twelve hours' notice to provide for a 
large practice, had accomplished nothing beyond gaining the enmity of 
the minority, from my apparent interference in their affairs. But, 
above all, I lost the good-will of one gentleman who was unfortunately 
one of the minority, and this has been a sotirce of great regret to me. 
His great-grandfather and my grandfather had been friends and college 
mates and for him I had the greatest respect personally. 

I have in my possession a bound copy of the Home Rule Bulletin, 
published monthly by the Irish National Federation from August i, 1893, 
to March i, 1895, when it ceased to be published from want of funds. 
I was in constant communication with the head of the Irish party and 
with different members, but I neglected to keep a copy of these letters. 
The Bulletin, however, has printed other letters of importance written 



294 Incidents of my Life 

by me, and among the number I find one in relation to this visit to 
London. When I reached London, I found Mr. Justin McCarthy was 
absent from the city on a vacation, and I had to wait iintil his return. 
I wrote to him announcing my arrival, September 21 , 1894, and to inform 
him of my business. (See Appendix, Note No. IV.) 

Several gentlemen among the members of Parliament, who claimed 
to have cause of complaint against the general management of Irish 
affairs by the leaders of the majority, called on me, as did a number of 
others, and after hearing what they had to say the correspondence was 
published in the Dublin Freeman'' s Journal by Mr. Justin McCarthy 
(see Appendix, Note No. V.), and subsequently I dropped out of the 
controversy as soon as I made my report to the Board of Trustees of 
the Irish National Federation. 

The Bulletin prints a note: "The views of Dr. Emmet are endorsed 
unhesitatingly by Archbishop Croke, and by every respectable politician 
in Ireland who is able to keep his head above the stream of faction. They 
find expression in the Freeman s Journal, the Glasgow Observer, and other 
recognized organs of unpartisan Irish nationality. — Ed. H. R. B." 

I returned home regretting that I had been unable to accomplish 
anything for the cause of Ireland, and fully convinced that under the 
circumstances I would be able to do in the future little in comparison to 
what had been anticipated. 

In less than a month after my return, our receipts were so reduced 
that they were barely sufficient to pay the office rent and Mr. Ryan's 
salary. From this time forth and until the Irish Federation ceased to 
exist, when Mr. Redmond became the leader, we never received a dollar 
but by personal appeal, or from large meetings specially called from time 
to time. 

To the end the branches existed nominally with the officers, but the 
membership dropped off entirely. 

On my return from abroad, it seemed to be known in New York at 
once that I had failed in my object, and the opposition to us was increased 
at every turn. The Irish papers opposed to the leaders of the National 
party, as represented by the members of Parliament, began at home and 
abroad to express their virtuous indignation on account of a subscrip- 
tion made by Mr. Gladstone and Lord Tweedmouth to the Irish election 
funds. It seemed that some clerk employed in sending out notices to 
the public generally for soliciting subscriptions to the fund addressed a 
notice to these gentlemen, and they responded generously with a check 
for five hundred dollars each. Some of the minority of the party members 
of Parliament seized on the incident to charge the leaders of the majority 
with being bribed. 



Letter to New York *'Sun" 295 

The New York Sun published a letter from me October 4, 1894, from 
which I will quote some extracts : 

I beg to correct a statement made by a representative of your paper in 
yesterday's issue, under the caption, "Dr. Emmet's Mission." He states 
"Over there they regard poHtics as a sort of joke, and they get up a shindy 
and take pleasure in it, never thinking of the consequences. " What I did say 
was to indicate that the Irish leaders, with their earnest and naturally im- 
pulsive temperaments and looking upon their political questions as only con- 
cerning themselves, are often too hasty in giving expression to their sentiments 
and differences, without considering the effect upon public opinion outside 
of Ireland. In addition, I am reported as saying that I had met none of the 
Irish leaders during my visit to London. This is not the case. When I 
arrived Mr. McCarthy and other members of the National party, it is true, 
were absent, but before my departure, I saw not only Mr. McCarthy (I did 
not mention that in addition I attended a large meeting of the leaders called 
at his house) but a number of Irish members representing different views, 
several Liberal members of Parliament, and I had two long interviews with Mr. 
Patrick Collins, of Boston. ... It is also in my power to throw some light 
on the subject of your editorial in the same issue entitled "Michael Davitt on 
the Irish Circulars." 

I also stated this incident is simply "a tempest in a teapot" — a barren 
controversy — and further agitation of the subject can result in no good to 
the cause of Honie Rule. A clerical error was doubtless made in sending these 
circulars to any one connected with the British Government, but I believe 
no member of the party was directly responsible for this. The publicity which 
has been given the subject was uncalled for from the beginning, because from 
Mr. Parnell's day to the present there has been no dissenting opinion in the 
Irish party from the fixed policy that no member could, under any circum- 
stances, hold office from the British Government, and that no aid might be 
accepted from any member of the Ministry. On the other hand, every 
member of the party is fully aware of the fact that from the first day on which 
the Liberal and National parties began working together the Liberals have 
subscribed frequently to the Irish political expenses in England, where the 
Irish vote is a very important factor, the Irish members of Parliament and 
others in their interests often doing the work and the Liberals furnishing a 
large portion of the money, which of course, has been applied to the use of 
English constituencies only. 

Instead of cavilling over this condition of affairs it would be more reason- 
able for the Irish people to realize the fact that had they rendered more 
pecuniary aid to their own cause in the past and found less fault with the best 
that could be done under the existing circumstances, contributions from 
English people would never have been called for. I have, however, a hopeful 
view of the future ; so much so that we will begin our work for this year by a 
large meeting of the friends of Home Rule for Ireland at the Lenox Lyceum 



296 Incidents of my Life 

on October 1 7th. Our sole purpose will be to raise money for the cause. Every 
true and well-wishing Irishman shoiild respond to the call. Let all come, and 
those who object to receiving aid from the English friends of Home Rule will 
then have an opportunity to vindicate their principles and if they do their 
part in the future, I will promise that not a dollar will be taken hereafter from 
English sources. 

I have no means of knowing how many of these circulars were sent to 
those connected with the British Government, but I believe they were very 
few. Mr. Gladstone being entirely out of political life, his check should be 
accepted as a gracefvd and well-meant contribution on his part to the cause of 
Home Rule, and as an indication of his friendly and continued interest in the 
cause. I am under the impression that Lord Tweedmouth's check was 
received with a personal note from Mr. Gladstone, asking that it be accepted, 
but of this I am not positive. I do know, however, that Lord Tweedmouth's 
check was returned to him, so soon as those who had the authority to act in 
the matter returned to London, where I met them. 

Thos. Addis Emmet, M.D., 

President I.N.F.A. 

A meeting was held at the Lyceum on October 17, 1894, ^^ which 
Mr. Edward Blake, M. P., made the address of the evening on the situation 
in Ireland. The meeting was a large one and the people responded gen- 
erousty, but to preserve order we had to have over three hundred police- 
men in the building. The number had to be increased, as only an hour 
before the meeting I learned that a large number of tickets had been 
counterfeited for the purpose of admitting men enough to break up the 
meeting. It then became necessary to get some one who could point out 
the greater number of those in opposition and prevent their admission. 
With all precautions some one opposed to the meeting managed to get 
in, and a vial containing some explosive mixture was left by him in one 
of the stage boxes, concealed in an umbrella, and it exploded after the 
man had escaped. Through some defect in the preparation of the 
explosive mixture it only made a great noise and created a bad smell, 
without any other effect than impressing public opinion to the discredit 
of the Irish cause. 

We were chiefly opposed by an organization formed by the yoiong men 
employed in a large dry-goods estabhshment on the west side of the city, 
and with no prominent person among them. Yet they made it impossible 
for us to hold a public meeting without the protection of from three 
hundred to five hundred pohce. They were thereby able to impress 
the pubHc at a distance as if the Irish Federation was being opposed by a 
large majority of the Irish people in New York. 

We are thus reminded of Burke's comment on the noisy effect 
of a few grasshoppers who succeed in disturbing the repose of the 



opposition to the Federation 297 

neighborhood to an extent far out of proportion to their number and 
importance. 

Our experience offers an occasion for a strange comment, indeed, on 
the condition where the action of so small a portion of the Irish people 
could influence the judgment of the majority extended over this country 
and abroad. And strange indeed is it that our efforts to accomplish 
the same purpose as claimed to be the object of those in the opposition 
should yet be confronted with an equal degree of aggressiveness, as if we 
were working in the interest of the English Government ! 

With no other people than the Irish could it be possible for eight or 
nine disaffected members of Parliament, and probably not more than 
fifty young men, banded together as if for a frolic, to be able to sacrifice 
or obstruct the great cause of a country through the jealousy and petty 
personal interests of a few individuals! 

The loss of opportunity for raising the money to support the National 
cause of Ireland was a serious one and unnecessary; but it was an in- 
significant one in comparison with the opportunity lost for creating in this 
country pubhc opinion favorable to the Irish cause ; the existence of which 
the English Government has ever feared might be created in this country, 
in connection with the Irish movement and to her detriment. 

From the beginning, as organized, and to the end, there was never a 
man connected with the Irish Federation whose name and service were not 
a warrant for honesty of purpose and respectability. From my social and 
professional position I was beyond question known personally or by 
reputation, to a larger number outside of Irish influence and throughout 
the United States and Canada, than any other individual in sympathy 
with the Irish cause. To the majority of the people who knew nothing 
of Ireland or of my connection with the Irish cause, on learning the fact 
that I was at the head of the Irish Federation, it would have created an 
interest and a desire for information. 

This interest was cultivated by every means in our power, and through 
the distribution of special literature and by personal contact. 



Chapter XXII 



Reference to the Dublin Phoenix Park murder, and to Tynan — Action taken by the London 
Times — The New York Herald printed three days before the general election in Great 
Britain an article the London Times had prepared to defeat the Irish national members of 
Parliament — History of the trick — Action of the Federation in exposing it — Death of Mr. 
Eugene Kelly, treasurer of the Federation — He was a great loss to the Irish cause — Mr. 
John D. Crimmins elected treasurer — Difficulties in raising funds from dissension abroad 
and mistrust at home — Total amount remitted by Mr. Kelly to the national treasurer 
in Ireland — I became broken down from overwork and worry — Sent to Bermuda — Be- 
came ill there— Prepared for death — Several hundred Irish Catholic servant girls spent the 
night in praying for my recovery — God granted their unselfish and charitable prayers — 
Moved to the steamer from the hotel by an army ambulance corps and escorted by a 
corporal's guard of the British Army — Kindness of the Governor of Bermuda — Several 
months before convalescence — Decided to close my private hospital — Some of the distinc- 
tive features of my library described — Sold my library and collection of autographs and 
engravings — Mr. Kennedy, the purchaser, presented the collection to the Lenox Library — 
Irish National Federation no longer in active operation — Mr. Ryan's sacrifice — Peter 
Macdonnell and John Crane — Their loyalty to the Irish cause — Delivered a lecture at 
Cooper Union, Feb. i, 1897, to the New York Branch of the Federation, on "England's 
Destruction of Ireland's Manufactories, Commerce and Population" — Lease expired and 
could not be renewed — Moved the office of the Federation — Trustees all in favor of 
closing^Reasons for not acquiescing — Mr. J. B. Fitzpatrick true to the last — Wrote 
The Emmet Family — Mr. Abram S. Hewitt — His recollection of the death and funeral 
of Thomas Addis Emmet, my grandfather. 



WAS on the lookout at all times to aid the Irish 
cause by every means in my power. A man in the 
employ of the Federation reported that he had made 
the acquaintance and held the confidence of the 
scoundrel Tynan, who posed here as "No. i " from 
his connection with the Dublin Phoenix Park murder 
of Lord Cavendish and Mr. Burke, the Irish secre- 
tary. While half intoxicated, he had confided to his new friend 
that he had been sent to this country to work up a case to prove 
that the Irish members were implicated, and that it was to be 
used to defeat their return to Parliament at the coming election. For 
nearly a year we emploj'ed this man to remain with Tynan as an intimate 




Action by London ''Times" 299 

friend. At length we learned from him that the London Times had 
employed him to write up an account of the murder, and to revive the 
old charge implicating the Irish members as the instigators. We were 
also informed that the Times intended to print this statement just before 
the general election, when there would not be time to prove the lie and 
thus the election of many of the Irish members would be lost, and Tory 
members would be returned in their places. Tynan confided the informa- 
tion that he had privately sold the original copy of his article to the 
New York Herald for five hundred dollars, and with the assurance on his 
part that the Herald alone possessed the information. The Herald was 
communicated with and informed as to the puropse of the Times and on 
what day it had been decided to publish Tynan's article. Consequently, 
it was printed in the Paris Herald and New York Herald with an ex- 
planation on the day before, so that the Times was unable to carry out 
its purpose, or accomplish anything beyond showing its unprincipled and 
lying purpose. 

The Home Rule Bulletin for June, 1894, contains the following: 

There have been floating around the clubs and other centres of infor- 
mation in London for many months, vague rumors of some "revelations" 
that were soon to appear in connection with Irish affairs, that would assur- 
edly kill the Home Rule movement, utterly rout the Gladstone-Rosebery 
party, and triumphantly carry Lord Salisbury and the Tories back into power. 

The rumors have recently taken a more definite form, and it is now insisted 
upon by the best informed among Irish Nationalists that a far-reaching attempt 
is about to be made by some of the leaders of the Tory party, in connection 
with the London Times, to smirch the memory of Parnell and the good name 
of some of the present Irish members of the House of Commons, with a view 
to affecting the coming general election in Great Britain and Ireland. 

Dr. Thos. Addis Emmet, president of the Irish National Federation of 
America, gave an interview to a Herald reporter on May 31st [1894] on the 
subject, at his home, No. 89 Madison Avenue, and was very indignant when 
these rumors were brought to his attention. 

[To the reporter of the New York Herald] : "Yes," said he, " it is a fact that 
before the general election of 1892 the London Times, unmindful of the bitter 
lesson it had received in 1889, when it was obliged to bear the loss of more 
than one million of dollars in hard cash for its outlay in connection with the 
Times-Vaxnell Commission, and the loss of one half its circulation, sent its 
agent to this country to work up another set of sensational disclosures, but 
the attempt failed. 

"The Federation of which I am president has had information that the 
agents of the Times and the Tory party have been scouring the United States 
for nearly a year to obtain every kind of information that would enable them 
to get up a campaign cry for the next election. 



300 Incidents of my Life 

' ' So far back as the end of last year an attempt was made by Tory agents 
in England to procure the publication of a pamphlet or book in which it was 
sought to be shown that Mr. Parnell and other members of Parliament not 
only sanctioned and encouraged, but actually ordered the assassination of 
Chief-Secretary Forster andUnder-Secretary Burke, and that in pursuance of 
that order the Phoenix Park murders took place, Lord Cavendish being the 
victim instead of Mr. Forster. 

"None of the publishers in London would take up the matter, and the 
Times itself did not dare touch it. 

"To show you how accurate the infonnation of the Federation is in reference 
to the proposed attack, I quote from a letter received here six months ago 
from one in the confidence of the Tory party : ' Negotiations are on foot for 
the publication of a book making disclosures, to come in the form of the history 
of Irish affairs from 1879 to 1882, including the Invincible Conspiracy, by a 
person in the United States, who was alleged to have been mixed up in that 
organization.' 

[We had already information within the Federation relating to Tynan 
and his work, so kept a man in our employ to shadow him for nearly a year, 
as a most intimate personal friend, until we had accomplished our purpose as 
already stated. Of course the reporter was only informed of what I wished 
to be published at the time.] 

"The English Tory is the most stupid of mortals; otherwise, after the 
lessons of the past, these people would not again descend to the methods 
which they attempted in 1889. Then, after an investigation extending over 
many months, three of the most prominent of the English judges, Hannen, 
Day, and Smith declared that there was no foundation for the charge that 
Mr. Parnell was intimate with leading Invincibles, or that he recognized 
the Phoenix Park murder as their handiwork, and further, they said, 'We 
entirely acquit Mr. Parnell and the other respondents of the charge of in- 
sincerity in the denunciation of the Phoenix Park murders, and find that the 
facsimile letter on which this charge was chiefly based against Mr. Parnell is 
a forgery ! ' 

"We know that there are to-day English Tory agents in this country en- 
deavoring to discover or manufacture any possible shreds of evidence in 
substantiation of the blackest attempts ever made to besmirch a political 
party. It has been openly boasted that revelations are forthcoming which will 
blow Rosebery and the Liberals 'as high as a kite,' but for my part I have 
too much faith in the good sense of the English people to believe for one 
moment that their judgment can be affected by any such transparent fraud 
as is about to be attempted on them. The London Times has more than an 
ordinary interest in this matter. When it entered upon the attempted expo- 
sure of 'Parnellism and crime,' in 1887, it did so with a light heart and I 
believe with the fvdl assurance that as soon as it had killed off the Home Rule 
movement, and 'dished' the Liberals, its Tory patrons would get a vote from 
Parliament to repay it for all its outlay; but the plans of the conspirators 
miscarried. Parnell and the Irish party came through the fire purified; 



Death of Eugene Kelly 301 

Pigott, the forger, committed suicide; Macdonald, the chief of the Times 
syndicate, broke down and died; and the 'Thunderer' was very nearly ruined. 
Now, if they can only succeed in ' blowing Rosebery and the Liberal party as 
high as a kite,' perhaps a Tory majority in Parliament might be induced to 
redeem the promise of 1887, and recoup the Times $1,000,000 which it is out 
of pocket on the Parnell Commission. That the Tory party is capable of 
resorting to desperate and questionable methods, the past fully proves. In 
Ireland it makes common cause with the extremist whom it denounces in 
the House of Commons, in order to divide the Irish people and defeat 
Home Rule." 

Dr. Emmet says that he had never felt more confident of the success of the 
Home Rule cause than he does now, and that the days of Guy Fawkes and 
Baron Munchausen are past. 

Mr. Eugene Kelly, the treasurer of the Federation, died in the 
autumn of 1894, a man respected by all who knew him and a great loss 
to the Irish cause, to which he probably gave more time, in conducting 
Irish interests in this country, and contributed more in money, for aid 
to the evicted tenants and the support of the Irish leaders in Parliament, 
than any other individual. Mr. Kelly was in bad health for some time 
before his death, and had for six months opposed the continuation of any 
further effort on the part of the Federation and -wished the organization 
broken up. As no other person connected with the Federation was of the 
same opinion, he seemed to have lost all interest in its affairs, although he 
remained nominally the treasurer until his death. He was a man who 
never became discouraged while in good health, and always overcame 
difficulties by perseverance. Had his health remained unimpaired, his 
interest would never have lessened. 

Mr. John D. Crimmins was elected treasurer by the Board of Trustees 
January 7, 1895, and placed in charge of an almost empty treasury. 
From this time forth, until we were no longer able to raise anything 
except by personal appeal, it became exceedingly difficult to meet the 
expenses of the organization. 

It would now be impossible without undergoing great labor, to 
ascertain the exact amount of money raised directly or indirectly, by the 
Irish National Federation of America or by others outside, and sent 
direct to the Federation in Ireland, or by Mr. Kelly, the treasurer of the 
Federation, separately, for the relief of the evicted tenants and for aiding 
in support of the Irish National members of Parliament. After our 
public meetings began to be disturbed in New York, many throughout 
the country who were part of our organization became discouraged, yet 
still made irregular efforts on their own account to collect money, ignor- 
ing the central organization and sending their remittances direct to Ire- 



302 Incidents of my Life 



land. This was done in Boston, more than once ; in Buffalo, Chicago, and 
elsewhere. We received no credit for these remittances, and yet but a 
very small portion of these funds would ever have been collected if the 
organization had not been established in New York with branches 
outside. Toward the end our influence was greatly weakened by the 
ill-judged course followed by the authorities abroad, who frequently 
communicated directly with different branches, receiving their remit- 
tances from some special meeting and thanking them individually, thus 
ignoring the central organization. 

No one in authority abroad seemed to realize that without the 
existence of a central organization it would be impossible to keep up a 
steady supply of money. From the unfortunate feeling of jealousy 
which is too common among the Irish people and through fear that they 
would not get full credit for their individual efforts, or that we would 
receive too much, it was very difficult to keep the central organization in 
working order. Both in this country and abroad some of the most in- 
telligent men seemed unable to understand the situation and that a 
great loss of time and money had to be incurred with the getting up of 
every meeting, w^hich would not have been the case if a branch existed 
and acted under the direction of a central body. We were for a short 
time in receipt of an average, as I have stated, of nearly one thousand 
dollars a week from the organization established under my supervision, 
made up of weekly dues from the members of the branches. Everything 
was working well together with the prospect of the system being ex- 
tended throughout the country, and thus creating a regular income en- 
tirely apart from that derived from the large piiblic meetings, which 
had previously been our only source. But as the dissension began and 
continued abroad the people in this country lost courage, and as the 
central organization was ignored, or weakened, the steady source of 
revenue, produced by organization, decreased and finally in a short time, 
ceased entirely. After this time, showing the loss of confidence, whenever 
a remittance was sent abroad by a bill of exchange, and the circumstance 
announced in the papers, we would receive a dozen letters complaining 
that no mention was made of the three hundred dollars sent by them, or 
that the five hundred from another source had not been mentioned ; and 
yet we never received fifty cents without publishing it with the name 
and residence of the donor. Altogether, a position in connection with 
the Irish National Federation of America was anything but a sinecure. 

In the last issue of the Home Rule Bulletin, published March, 1895, it 
is stated: 

Remittances to the Irish Party were made by the late Treasurer, Mr. 
Eugene Kelly, as follows: 



Trip to Bermuda 303 

1891 $20,628.49 

1892 . 39,727.80 

1893 33.227.75 

1894 5,500.00 

$99,084.04 

Since Mr. Kelly's death, January, 1895 . 2,000.00 

$101,084.04 

The expenses of the office were enormous for printing and postage 
alone, as we frequently sent out ten thousand circulars at a time. We 
often had to pay hall rent and expenses of speakers in small places where 
it was advisable to hold a meeting to advance the cause, and v/here the 
expenses were frequently greater than the receipts, and full credit had to 
be given the place without any deduction. 

July I, 1895, I had occasion to write an open letter to the New York 
Herald to correct a misstatement made by that paper, and to give an 
explanation of Irish affairs as then existing for the benefit of the public. 
As part of the history of the times the letter is of interest. (See Ap- 
pendix, Note No. VI.) 

Without thought of my advancing age, I had become an old man, yet 
had continued my professional work as if I were yet a young one, and to 
take an active part in other interests until I had reached my seven- 
tieth year. I retired one night earlier than was my usual habit, but 
worn out as usual. After a restless night I was found next morning almost 
in a state of collapse. 

It was decided that I needed an immediate change and I was sent off 
to Bermuda in January, 1896. I had improved somewhat when I ate 
some fish, which had been brought on ice from New York some time 
before. I was poisoned, and unfortunately was persistently treated by 
hypodermic injections of morphine, so that nothing could be retained 
on my stomach for some ten days, and during which time I was reduced 
to a condition of extreme emaciation. I became naturally somewhat 
jaundiced in consequence of the disturbed condition of my stomach. 
From the color of my skin, with a persistent pain in the right side of my 
abdomen, it was decided that I had cancer. Unfortunately the diagnosis 
of the physician in charge was confirmed by a noted New York practitioner 
who had just arrived, and both concurred in the opinion that I really 
could not possibly live longer than from three to six months. The 
morphine was increased to enable me to "die easy," and at length one 
night it was announced I would in all probability die before morning. 

I was roused from a stupor by a priest, who told me he had seen me in 
church and hearing I was very ill and lilcely to die, had called, as I might 
not be in a condition to realize my danger and it was his duty to prepare 



304 Incidents of my Life 

me for death if I wished his services. I told him that while I was not 
satisfied with the treatment, so far as I coiild judge I did not believe I 
was in imminent danger, but I felt that I was in no condition to decide 
for myself and I thanked him for his forethought, and I was prepared for 
death. Through the blessing of God the preparations for death seemed 
to have had a most salutary effect on me, so that I kept quiet and slept 
the greater portion of the night. 

One of the most touching incidents of my life occtirred to me that 
night of which I knew nothing until afterward. There were several 
hundred Irish Catholic girls employed in the different hotels and boarding- 
houses of Hamilton, where I was staying. Although I was unknown 
to them personally, with the single exception of my chambermaid and 
waitress, these girls, tired out as they were with their work, assembled and 
spent the night in prayer, asking for my recovery. I being a Catholic, 
and also on account of my name, my activity in Irish matters, and from 
always having exercised a care for their interest as a class, in my hos- 
pital work, I was known by reputation to those coming from New York. 
Through the love of charity which their religion taught them, these girls 
asked in good faith and it was granted. I have the faith to believe that 
my recovery was due to their prayers and I have many times asked that 
the blessing of God might rest upon them, individually and collectively. 

One of my sons was with me, and telegraphed to his brother, a 
physician in New York. My son the doctor. Dr. G. H. Mallett, 
one of my former assistants in the hospital, and a daughter, were in 
time to catch the steamer and arrived on the following day after I had 
been supposed to be in extremis. The morphine was stopped and means 
taken to nourish me without disturbing my stomach, so that in twelve 
hours I was out of danger, but in a helpless condition from weakness. 

My daughter met some friends and as I was on the way to recovery, 
she attended a reception given by the Governor, a Scotchman, I believe. 
On being presented and learning her name, he asked how I was and 
offered to have anything within his power done for me, I had arrived 
late in the season and could only get a room at the top of the house and 
approached by a winding staircase. Being quick-witted, she explained 
that on the following day I would return to New York, but the difficulty 
was seemingly great, as to how I was to be removed from my room, and 
as to the mode by which I could be conveyed to the steamer; that if he had 
an ambulance at his disposal and could send several persons accustomed 
to moving the sick to place me on the steamer, we would all be under the 
greatest obligation. 

He immediately sent for the sxirgeon of an Irish regiment then stationed 
there, and directed him to take charge of the matter. 



Military Escort to Steamer 305 

The next day the sergeant with a file from the Irish regiment arrived at 
the hotel, after having stationed at regular intervals soldiers along the 
line, for nearly a mile from the hotel to the steamer, who were to keep 
every conveyance off the street as soon as the ambidance started from the 
hotel. Four or five young fellows then came to my room, changed my 
clothes, dressed me, and carried me down to the ambulance, and placed 
me in my berth on the steamer, and with their eyes filled with tears to 
see, as they said, one of my name in such a helpless condition. As we 
were going along the street at a very stately pace the surgeon asked me 
how I was getting on. After thanking him for his services, I told him 
I really enjoyed the situation, as nearly a hundred years had passed since 
an English corporal's guard had been honored by being the escort of one 
bearing the name of Emmet. I fear he thought me guilty of undue 
levity, but I was sorry for the poor fellow, who, with the others in the 
regiment, had been probably obliged to enlist in the English Army to 
escape starvation. 

I certainly was placed under the greatest obligation to the Governor, 
who put himself out of the way to show such kindness to a stranger, 
and I have regretted it was never in my power to show how much I 
appreciated his efforts. Without his aid I would have arrived in New 
York in a very different state. 

I reached home in fair condition, but it was only after several months 
that I finally recovered my strength sufficiently to enable me to get about. 
During my absence I had been at great expense in keeping open my 
private hospital, so I decided to close it as soon as my employees had time 
to obtain other positions. From the fact of having been in my employ 
and on my recommendation, they were all provided for in a few days. 

I had occupied for years the whole of the second story of the house 
adjoining my residence for my library and collection of Americana. 
Its special feature was over two hundred thick folio volumes, which were 
made up of different series connected with American history containing 
the autograph and portrait of every individual connected with each 
special series and all other material to illustrate the subject. At the 
Albany Congress held in 1754, the first development of certain features of 
government were discussed which finally culminated in the Revolution. 
The Stamp Congress in 1774 — growing out of the undue taxation of the 
American Colonies and which formed another step to the Revolution: 
the First Continental Congress at the beginning of the Revolution. A 
set of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the greater portion 
of the letters having been written during the year 1776, many referring to 
the event and aU of historical value, and containing the only letter of 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., known to exist, with an original copy of the Declara- 



3o6 Incidents of my Life 

tion of Independence in Jefferson's handwriting and made the night of its 
passage; together with a full history of the passage and signing, with 
original broadside copies of the first pubhcation, together with a set of 
water-color miniatures painted by Hall, especially for the work, with 
many copies of original portraits of the "Signers," unknown before and 
which I had succeeded in tracing to the descendants and other sources 
after many years of labor. Through my research, the identity was 
established as to the likeness of fifty-five of the fifty-six signers, there 
being no proof that any portrait of Morton was in existence. Then all 
in relation to forming and signing the Articles of Federation, a complete 
set of the members of the different Continental Congresses, so far as was 
known up to the time the collection was formed. Then, the Annapolis 
Convention with the original minutes, and the original call for the 
meeting in Philadelphia of the convention which formed the present 
Constitution of the United States, with the original acceptance of the 
Constitution by seven of the thirteen Colonies. Washington's First 
Administration formed another volume, with the original papers in 
relation to notifying him of his election. Also the first amendments to 
the U. S. Constitution as passed and certified by the Vice-President and 
Secretary of the Senate. The original document as engrossed. A 
complete set of the Presidents from Hancock, the first President of the 
Continental Congress, and Presidents of the United States including 
Lincoln, and of the Vice-Presidents from Washington's administration to 
the death of Lincoln, with a playbill for the evening found in the box after 
his removal, and probably the one in his hand at the moment he was shot, 
with many other remarkable and unique features scattered through the 
different volumes. Also Booth's History of New York City, containing 
an immense collection of autographs and historical material connected 
with New York. Irving' s Life of Washington and other works I am now 
unable to recall. I had also formed probably the largest collection of 
Colonial paper money, as well as the most complete set of the money and 
bonds issued by the Confederate Government. The collection contained 
the portraits of nearly thirty thousand persons connected with the 
history of this country. I had been directly, or indirectly instrumental 
in the preservation of the likenesses of fully five hundred individuals 
noted in connection with the Revolution, the existence of many of which 
was never known before, and of a number which from the destruction 
of the originals by fire are now the only likenesses extant and are pre- 
served in this collection. 

As I had been a collector of autographs from boyhood and sought 
always to obtain those of the greatest historical value, the collection be- 
came in time, without being the largest, the most valuable any single 



My Library Described 307 

individual ever succeeded in getting together. The final disposition of 
this collection, to the best advantage for those coming after me had 
been the subject of my serious consideration for years. Several 
years before I had consulted the representative of an auction firm 
in Philadelphia as to the disposal of the collection and was informed 
that if one hundred thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of the 
firm for advertising and preparing a proper catalogue with facsimiles of 
the most important subjects, and a year given to get ready, and with the 
sales at intervals during several years after, more than the original cost 
of the collection could be realized ; otherwise, the sale would be a failure 
and it would not be undertaken by them. 

I had already parted with a valuable portion of the collection for a 
comparatively trivial sum, and I have since regretted that it could never 
be again identified with the "Emmet Collection." I had collected and 
had bound over one hundred and fifty volumes of Colonial newspapers, 
the labor of a lifetime, and one unequalled in value, as a whole, by any 
other collection. I felt forced to part with it at almost any price in con- 
sequence of the annoyance I was subjected to through the thoughtlessness 
of individuals who were continually giving letters of introduction to 
persons desirous of inspecting these papers, and who came with no 
guarantee as to their honesty. As I was absent all day, it was necessary 
to refuse and give offence, or keep some one especially to remain in the 
room, for with all my care I was frequently losing things of value. 

My particular chum was a female dachshund, a most intelligent dog ; 
one fully convinced she owned the library with me as a special partner, 
and when in charge of her interest she spent the greater part of her time 
there on guard. She seemed to have learned by instinct that few persons, 
however reputable in other respects, could be trusted there. When a 
stranger came into the room, after a due course of investigation with her 
nose she would decide on her course. If the visitor was a friend, who had 
visited me frequently, she would wag her tail and go back to her place; 
but she continued to keep an eye on him until I, or some other person 
came to relieve her of the responsibility. If the visitor was a stranger, 
she made no advances, but seated herself by his side. If he arose from 
his chair, she accompanied him, allowing him to look at the books from 
the outside so long as he wished, but if he placed a finger on one, she 
immediately took a good hold of his trousers leg at his ankle and held on. 
If he moved, she growled, but never relinquished her hold until his outcry 
called in some one, when she would retire to her corner. Persons writing, 
or making some special investigation, never hesitated to spend the greater 
part of the day there as if at a public library, and to my great incon- 
venience and annoyance. At length I had an offer from Mr. Hildebum of 



3o8 Incidents of my Life 

Philadelphia, for about one fifth of what I knew to be the value of these 
newspapers had a wealthy purchaser been found. I accepted this price 
without due thought, and he sold them at a fair profit, but as a bargain, 
to the Lenox Library. 

Unfortunately I had neglected to put my name or bookplate in these 
volumes, and yet in my effort to complete the sets, I was for many years 
more closely connected with this special feature than with anything else 
in the collection. 

A knowledge of my desire to part with the collection reached the 
ears of the late Mr. John S. Kennedy, president of the Lenox 
Library, who called and stated he had put aside a certain sum for the 
benefit of the library and this he offered for my collection with the 
promise that it should be kept together and known as the Emmet Col- 
lection. The offer was about half the amount I computed it had cost me, 
without taking into consideration my time spent in arranging it. Many 
are under the impression that this collection was made at a time when 
autographs and prints had but a nominal value, but this was not the case. 
From my boyhood I was a steady collector, in accord with my means ; but 
almost everything which gave special value and a unique feature to the 
collection in the way of historical autographs was purchased through 
Mr. Walter R. Benjamin within twenty years before I parted with the 
collection. It cannot be claimed that I ever obtained anything under its 
value, as no one did more than I to put up the prices by never allowing 
any opportunity to pass without securing everything of value regardless of 
price, and this circumstance brought valuable material rapidly into the 
market. Before I began to purchase valuable autographs, my collection 
consisted chiefly of coins, paper money, prints, and a few newspapers, 
together with books. Without the aid of Mr. Benjamin it is not likely 
that I could ever have accomplished so much. 

I accepted Mr. Kennedy's offer and in less than fifteen minutes all 
details were arranged, and on the following day everything was removed. 
In a week or ten days my private hospital was leased as a small hotel, so 
that I made every arrangement to settle my affairs in case the diagnosis 
proved correct, that I was to die from cancer within six months. 

The Irish National Federation had continued for several years as if 
still in active operation, but in fact it had existed only in a state of sus- 
pended animation, waiting for something to turn up. At length the 
Irish Race Convention was called to meet in Dublin, September 9, 1896, 
and it was clearly indicated in my mind that not only from a duty we 
owed to the Irish cause, but as a matter of policy, the Irish Federation 
should be represented. I was willing to make any personal sacrifice to 
attend as a delegate, but it was impossible with my professional obliga- 



Mr. Macdonnell and Mr. Crane 309 

tions to leave at that time. Mr. Ryan was the only person who could 
take my place, and I decided to send him at my own expense and in 
addition to aid him with some provision for his family in his absence, as 
he had made some effort to revive his old business, all of which would be 
lost. It taxed my resources greatly to meet this extra expense, as my own 
business had suffered greatly from my prolonged illness. But there was 
not a single individual known to me from whom I felt justified in asking 
for assistance in incurring what would be considered an uncalled-for 
expense under the circumstances. 

Mr. Ryan had sacrificed a profitable business to discharge the exacting 
duties of his office as secretary of the Federation, and in the early years 
of the organization had barely subsisted with his family on the nominal 
salary he received. He thus, from his devotion to the Irish cause, had 
made a great personal sacrifice. For some months past his salary had 
remained unpaid for want of funds, and from this time until his death, 
three years after, he had no means to live on but what I gave him, from 
time to time, in addition to any incidental job he might obtain. 

When I did ask for assistance there were two individuals who never 
failed to the last in giving me a liberal response, and I shall always keep 
green in my memory the late Peter Macdonnell and the late John 
Crane for their kindness. They were both satisfied that the organization 
should no longer be kept up as they felt the outlook was hopeless, and Mr. 
Crane always repeated to me his convictions, so that I discontinued call- 
ing on him for some time before I ceased to trouble Mr. MacdonneU. 
Peter Macdonnell always gave so freely that I never felt as if I were 
begging or that a suspicion could exist as to the possibility that the 
donation might be appropriated for my personal use. At length I was 
ashamed to solicit aid longer from either of these gentlemen. 

To every application in person or by letter to others abroad I received 
the same answer that nothing more would be contributed to the Irish 
cause until the quarrelling ceased, and that I had better close the office. 
This I could not agree to, as I felt I had been placed in charge of a trust 
which should be maintained until I could be relieved by some radical 
change in the party. So I continued on, keeping the office open for several 
hours daily, and the name in evidence to all appearances as if we were 
in active operation. 

During the winter of 1896-97 it was arranged to have given in the 
hall by different persons connected with the organization a weekly 
lecture on Irish history or some relevant subject, for the purpose of 
keeping together as far as possible the members of the different city 
branches of the Federation and for educational purposes. It proved a 
successful move in keeping up the interest of the people. Lectures 



310 Incidents of my Life 

were given by Mr. Ryan, Mr. Michael Fox, Prof. John P. Brophy, John 
O'Shea, R. A. Moynahan and others whose names I cannot recall. 

On February i, 1897, I gave a lecture on "England's Destruction 
of Ireland's Manufactures, Commerce, and Population." 

The lease for our rooms in the Cooper Union building expired on May 
1, 1897, and could not be renewed, as the space was required for the needs 
of the corporation. We moved our quarters to 47 West 426. Street, 
where we obtained two good-sized rooms on the third floor, the rent of 
which was within my means. 

After moving to the new quarters I made no attempt to hold another 
meeting, as the Board of Trustees, formed of the vice-presidents from 
the different States and of others from the City of New York, who gradu- 
ually losing their interest, had ceased to attend the meetings long before. 
There was a single exception, Mr. J. B. Fitzpatrick of Boston, the 
present national treasurer of the United Irish League, who, to the best 
of my recollection never failed to respond to the call for every meeting. 

In 1898 I issued as a privately printed work, The Emmet Family, with 
some Incidents Relating to Irish History, etc. This work also contained 
an extended memoir of my father, and it has been pronounced by the 
critics to be the most complete family history ever written. Unfor- 
tunately, there were but one hundred and twenty-eight copies printed, 
chiefly for the use of the family, and it was not stereotyped, so that it has 
now become for book fanciers the rarest family history to be obtained 
for private collections. I placed, however, seventy-five copies in the 
most prominent libraries of this country and Ireland, with a copy in the 
British Museum and the library of the House of Commons, London. 
For writing this book I had the honor of receiving the Laetare Medal 
from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. 

The purpose of my work on The Emmet Family was shown as follows : 
"With my love I dedicate this volume to my children and do so with the 
hope that they may realize a just pride in the records of those who, in 
the past, have so honestly filled their places in life, a sentiment which, 
if properly appreciated, must needs bear good fruit from the example thus 
set forth for emulation." 

During the winter of 1897 and '98, I met the late Mr. Abram S. 
Hewitt, the ex-Mayor and many years a member of Congress from 
New York City, at a dinner and had the good fortune to have been placed 
alongside of him. I am able to fix the date as I was passing The Emmet 
Family through the press at the time. On mentioning my work it led 
Mr. Hewitt to speak of my grandfather, Thomas Addis Emmet, of whom 
he had a clear recollection, and of the day of his death and fimeral. My 
grandfather lived at No. 30 Beach Street, facing St. John's Square, near 



Incid( 



John 



Thomas A. Emmet 



Att< new quarters I made no attempt to hold another 

meeting a- i ri,^ [v.>;uu ui Trustees, formed of the vice-presidents from 

the different States and of others from the City of New York, who gradu- 

ually losing their interest, had ceased to attend the meetings long before. 

There was a single exceptirtn, Mr. J. B. Fitzpatrick of Boston, the 

present " the United Irish League, who, to the best 

of ray r to respond to the call for every meeting. 

e Emmet Family, lifith 

work also contained 
From an oil portrait by Samuel F. B. Morse.^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ 

irv' ever written, Unfor- 
! -irared and ' ' ' ' inted, 

/, and it was no 1 has 

nciers the rarest fanaiy h 
I placed, however, sev;- 
u. s of this country and 

p. he library of th*^ H' 

I- 1 had the honor edal 

f \otrp Ortme, \t.< 

'. the 

rds of those who, in 

:, a sentiment which, 

' rom the example thus 



^ar recollection, 
- lived at No. 30 



e late Mr. Abram S. 

)er of Congress from 

•>rtune to have been placed 

I was passing The Emmet 

■oning my work it led 

\ddis Emmet, of whom 

ath and f tmeral. My 

t. John's Square, near 



Grandfather's Funeral 311 

the southeast corner.^ The Hewitt family lived in the neighborhood 
where my grandfather passed on his way to and return from his office, 
always carrying a green baize bag filled with his law papers. As he 
passed the house of Mr. Hewitt, who was a very intelligent man, my 
grandfather always, stopped to speak a few words with him, while he sat 
at the window of his shop at work. He was a dealer in hard woods and 
was probably in addition a wood-carver of dowel posts for staircases, 
of mantelpieces and the trimmings of doors and window-frames. 

Mr. Hewitt told me the day on which my grandfather died was 
impressed upon his memory, for as a child he noticed the absence of all 
noise and of people in the street, and he managed to slip out to learn the 
cause. His mother opened the door and called him in and as he passed 
her she said, "Be careful and make no noise for Mr. Emmet is dead." 
From what he told me, as having heard his father describe at the time, 
and from what I have corroborated by contemporary newspaper accounts, 
I am led to beHeve there has never been a similar funeral in New York, or 
one in which so large a proportion of the inhabitants took part, while for 
several hours the whole business of the city was suspended. It was 
thought that every one in the town knew him at least by sight, and proba- 
bly no other citizen ever commanded the love, veneration, and respect of so 
large a proportion of the people. The Board of Aldermen met, passed 
resolutions of condolence, and resolved that all offices connected with the 
city should be closed diiring the time of the funeral and the city officials 
should attend in a body. The same action was taken at a meeting of all 
the U. S. officials in the city. The courts all adjourned, after the judges 
had eulogized the dead, and the bar met to arrange for attending the 
funeral. The officials, professors, and students of Columbia College took 
action to attend in a body. As Mr. Emmet had at one time been a 
physician in practice all the physicians of the city and all the professors 
and students of the two medical schools were in attendance. The flags 
on every vessel in the harbor were at half mast and the bells on every 
church were tolled during the progress of the funeral. It took place from 
Grace Church, then on the block above Trinity, and the procession pro- 
ceeded to St. Mark's Church, in the "Bowerie," now at Ninth Street and 
Second Avenue, where the body was to be deposited. It appeared as if 
every able-bodied man in the city, rich and poor, and many with their 
well-grown sons, showed their respect by taking part in the obsequies. At 
the time the head of the procession with the body reached St. Mark's 

' My uncle, T. A. Emmet, Jr., lived at 47 Hudson St., west side, and Uncle Robert, 48 
White St. Elsewhere I have stated according to tradition my grandfather died at White St. 
The directories show that he had lived at 30 Beach St. for several years before his death, and 
he must have died there. 



312 Incidents of my Life 

Church, the people were still falling in line below Grace Church, and the 
whole procession was several hotus in passing in front of the church, after 
the body had been laid to rest, and each individual passed with uncovered 
head. 

Mr. Hewitt was a man of diversified knowledge and I made a special 
effort always to draw him out whenever we met afterward. With his 
conversational powers, and when interested in his subject, it was a pleas- 
ure to listen to him, and I have seldom met a man who gave me more 
pleasure and satisfaction. His knowledge of the iron industry and in- 
terest in the coimtry was remarkable, and the information he imparted to 
rae^would have required years of research on my part to have obtained. 



Chapter XXIII 



Received the Laetare Medal — Account of the ceremony — Death of Mr. Ryan in 1900 — Never 
was any individual better fitted for his position — His death occurred when his work was 
finished — Mr. John Redmond became the head of the Irish National party — Resigned my 
position as Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital — Some accotmt of my service — ^Also of 
my difficulties — The intrigue and "wire-pulling" were unequalled elsewhere — An interest- 
ing interview with a president of the Board of Managers — Some of the managers fully 
appreciated my work and had confidence in my judgment — What occurred at the election 
of two of the Visiting Surgeons — Was successful in obtaining aid from the State Legisla- 
ture for the hospital at a most critical period — I also obtained permission from the Board 
of Aldermen to sell the site of the hospital at 49th St. and Lexington Avenue, after the 
Committee of the Board of Managers had failed — Some reference to Mr. Richard Croker, 
and the working of Tammany — On my resignation as Visiting Surgeon, I requested from 
the Board of Managers the position of Emeritus Surgeon, and that my son, who had been 
my assistant for many years, should be appointed to fill my position — I stated as my 
reason that during so busy a life there was much I was never able to investigate, and that 
I wished to devote the remainder of my life to original work in the hospital — My re- 
quests were totally disregarded, after a continuous and gratuitous service to the Woman's 
Hospital of over 45 years. 




HE Laetare Medal was conferred upon me with some 
ceremony and the Irish American, April 14, 1906, 
reports the proceedings as follows : 

In 1896 the recipient of the honor, and most worthily 
too, was that splendid type of a great race and eminent 
practitioner, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet. One can turn 
to very few phases of our local history during the past 
century when honor shone and merit ruled and not find an Emmet conspicu- 
ous there. The presentation in 1898 was made to Dr. Emmet by the late Arch- 
bishop Corrigan on behalf of the University of Notre Dame, in the presence 
of the present Bishop of Buffalo, who was then his pastor, and a distinguished 
gathering. His many friends and admirers will learn with pleasure that the 
venerable patriot is now in Florida acquiring the new health and vigor 
that will, we trust, keep him for many years to come still with us. 



From an unknown source I have preserved a newspaper clipping 
giving thefollowing statement which is correct: 

313 



314 Incidents of my Life 

"The story of the Laetare Medal is familiar enough to Americans. In 1883 
the facility of the University of Notre Dame (Indiana) determined to choose 
each year from the ranks of the Catholic laity of the United States a man or 
woman conspicuous for furthering the interests of morality, education, or 
citizenship and to confer on that person a tangible mark of honor to bear 
witness of the approbation and sympathy of Notre Dame. This expression 
of esteem takes the form of the Laetare Medal. The Medal receives its name 
from the day on which it is bestowed, Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in 
Lent. The day takes its name from the Introit of the Mass for that day which 
begins with the word ' Laetare, ' which means ' rejoice. ' 

" The faculty chose this particular Sunday in order to associate the occasion 
of the presentation of the Medal in the mind of the recipient with a similar 
usage that has obtained for six centuries in Europe. Early in the thirteenth 
century the Popes inaugurated the custom of giving on Laetare Sunday to 
one who had performed marked service to religion and humanity a golden 
rose blessed by the Pope. Since the purpose to be accomplished in the con- 
ferring of the Medal is almost the same as that of giving the rose, Laetare 
Sunday has been chosen as the most fitting time for its presentation. In early 
times, the formal conferring of the golden rose by the Pope was accompanied 
by a benediction conveyed in the words 'Receive from our hands this rose, 
beloved son, who, according to the world art noble, valiant, and endowed 
with great prowess, that you may be still more ennobled by every virtue from 
Christ as a rose, planted in the streams of many waters; and may this grace 
be bestowed on you in the prevailing clemency of Him Who liveth and reigneth 
world without end. ' 

"The bar from which the disk is suspended is lettered, 'Laetare Medal,' 
and the face of the disk bears the inscription, ' Magna est Veritas et proevalebit ' 
— ' truth is mighty and shall prevail. ' The reverse side has the names of the 
University and the recipient. The address presented with the Medal is 
painted and printed on silk, and sets forth in each instance the special reasons 
influencing its bestowal. Dr. John Gilmary Shea, historian, was the first one 
upon whom the Medal was conferred." 

The illuminated address presented with the Medal was as follows : 
Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., LL.D. 

In conferring upon you the honor of the Laetare Medal which has been worn 
by so many illustrious Catholic Americans, men and women, the University 
of Notre Dame knows that it has added great additional lustre to the company 
of those noble children of the Church by placing your name with theirs, and 
the University is grateful for the honor which also is reflected upon itself by 
this choice. 

Your family is historically great with the republican nobility of intellect 
and good deeds done for country and fellow man, and to no member thereof 
need you yield precedence in the estimation of those whose favorable regard 



Death of Mr. Ryan 3^5 

is most valuable in the world. The Universities of Europe look to you as to 
one of the great surgeons of the century; the medical profession of America 
has for years considered you as one of its most learned and skilful members ; 
and European and American gynaecologists , and suffering women all over the 
world are indebted to you for discoveries in surgical methods, and for deep 
and sound doctrines which are of untold value to humanity. Long ago Homer 
said, " A physician is worth many other men," and you have again proved the 
truth in the great poet's words, imitating the work of the good physician Dante, 
the holy physician Saint Luke, the Divine Physician of mankind Who healed 
the ills of soul and flesh. 

To men like you the youth of the Republic look for the edification of saving 
example, and they are not deceived in their trustfulness; upon men like you 
the world looks, and thinks more favorably of the mother Church which would 
he fair in their eyes for their salvation; and the University of Notre Dame had 
this thought before her when she deemed it fitting to confer honor upon your vener- 
able head. Your heart best knows the peace that crowns a life well spent for 
God and man and the University prays this peace may grow fuller year after 
year until the great reward comes. 

"And stay thou with us long! Vouchsafe us long 
Thy brave autvminal presence ere the hues 
Slow-fading, ere the quaver of thy voice. 
The twilight of thine eye move men to ask 
Where hides the chariot, — in what sunset vale, 
Beyond thy chosen rider, champ the steeds 
That wait to bear thee skyward." 

I had been for many years reading and collecting the material for 
writing a work to show the condition of Ireland and her people was due 
to misgovernment by England. I found difficulties at every step in 
collecting the material, as the so-called histories within reach of the 
people were all written in the interest of the English Government, and 
until a comparatively late period all books written by Irish people had 
been systematically burned by the Goverimient. I occupied all my 
spare time in this undertaking, and renewed my efforts when the move for 
Home Rule was begun that the work might be utilized to educate the 
Irish people, who from force of circumstances had become most ignorant 
of their own history. 

In March, 1900, Mr. Ryan became suddenly ill, and died in a few 
weeks from a disease which must have existed for an indefinite period 
without giving any manifestation, or if so, he, being of a sturdy natture, 
had disregarded all symptoms. With the death of Mr. Ryan, the Irish 
National Federation of America came to an end, although the rooms were 
opened every day until our lease expired on the following first of May. I 
have never known of an instance where a man was better fitted for a 



3i6 Incidents of my Life 

position than Mr. Ryan was for the secretaryship of the Federation. He 
was a man of unusual intelHgence and was most reHable in his judgment. 
I^doubt if ever any two men worked better together than we did, as each 
could supply to some degree what the other lacked. He had been for 
years connected with Irish affairs, and obtained the most accurate in- 
formation as to details in connection with all political matters, of which 
I had but a superficial knowledge. There was no man in the United States 
who had taken any part in Irish politics whom Mr. Ryan had not become 
fully informed as to his value and las to how far ,he could be utilized. 
During the whole nine years we were together, he never in a single in- 
stance failed to designate the best person to consult or to execute any plan, 
and he was always able to state the best mode of address and to excite 
the person's interest, consequently he was a man of great tact, when he saw 
fit to exert it. With a host of friends he had enemies, as every man must 
have who is honest and outspoken and with such strong traits of character, 
yet I never heard any one doubt his honesty of purpose. While behind 
the scenes I had my hands on everything and made myself familiar with 
all details, I kept myself in the background to the public as much as I 
could, using others to do the actual work ; consequently with many I was 
supposed to be little more than a figurehead. Many a man rendered 
most valuable service to the Federation without knowing "who put him 
up to it." I would get a man's name from Ryan and when I next met 
him would introduce myself if I did not know him, express my satisfaction 
on making his acquaintance, and after a friendly chat on any casual sub- 
ject would incidentally mention what was on my mind, and pass on. In 
nine times out of ten the man would call and see me in a few days, to ask 
me what I thought of such a plan which had occurred to him ! I would 
congratulate him most heartily on his good judgment and he would set to 
work with great satisfaction to execute it. As I had the misfortune to 
come neither from counties Clare, Mayo, Galway, nor elsewhere in the dear 
old country, I often found it difficult to shape the course of those more 
fortunate, but once an Irishman becomes started in the right direction 
and you have his confidence, he becomes the most reliable of all men. 

Mr. Ryan's death occurred just before Mr. Redmond was placed at the 
head of the National party, so we thus remained true to our trust until 
we were relieved by his election. All connected with the organization at 
once expressed loyalty to the will of the majority by acknowledging Mr. 
Redmond as the legitimate successor of Mr. Dillon. We did this 
promptly notwithstanding our work had been greatly impaired, if not 
ultimately destroyed in this country by his supporters. 

I resigned my position as Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital, after a 
continuous and gratuitous service of over forty-five years, with the 



Resigned from Woman's Hospital 317 

exception that I was absent, while the hospital was in operation, nine 
months altogether from sickness and other causes during that period. 
For many years I rendered a daily service from two o'clock in the after- 
noon, and until of late years I visited in addition as often as necessary 
any special case needing my services and at any hour during the day or 
night. In fact I never gave to any pay patient in private practice more 
attention than these poor people received, of whom I knew nothing more 
than in connection with their suffering. During the whole of my service 
I can recall but a single instance where I was ever half an hour late, and 
never for so long a time from any qircumstance I could control. The rule 
was to begin giving the anesthetic at ten minutes before the hour when I 
was expected to enter the room at the stroke of the clock. On two 
occasions only was I unable to attend at the appointed hour, and failed 
to give notification of my inability, through unexpected circumstances. 
Whenever I had occasion to be absent from the city at my clinic hour, 
from the demand of my private business, I invariably rendered the like 
service before or after my return. 

For many years after my reputation had been fully established and 
my time was worth intrinsically whatever I saw fit to charge, I served no 
afternoon at the hospital that the time given by me did not represent a 
pecuniary loss of at least fifty dollars cash, and had I utilized the same 
time for performing some surgical operation the profit would have been 
much greater. If I had simply attended to my private practice, or had 
the authorities of the hospital had to pay me the lowest price for my 
services, I would have realized far more than a handsome provision for 
my old age and for my family after my death. 

The managers until they gained the experience were almost without 
exception ignorant of all knowledge pertaining to the management of a 
hospital, yet they were burdened with a full sense of their own importance. 
As these men had all been successful in business they could not hold any 
other opinion but that my continued service, year after year, was due 
to deriving some personal benefit. For years I was constantly annoyed 
and to the last day of my service by the espionage. At one time the 
superintendent who had charge of this business was about as poor a 
specimen of a man as could be conceived of and one totally unfit for the 
place. He was by nature a spy, and through his efforts I was con- 
stantly subjected to the annoyance of an investigating committee 
from the Board of Managers on the most trivial pretext. He was the 
kind of man who would take pride in "having served the Lord" by con- 
stantly keeping his eye on a " Romanist. ' ' I was the equal in every respect 
of jail in the Board as to every attribute pertaining to the highest social 
position, with the exception of wealth, which I valued the least. Many 



3i8 Incidents of my Life 

seemed to have no appreciation that something was due to my age, long 
service, and to the fact that it was no discredit to the hospital that I was 
probably known by reputation to every prominent physician throughout 
the world, and whenever the hospital was ever mentioned abroad, it was 
always spoken of as " Dr. Emmet's hospital." I would be called to ac- 
count on any representation of this superintendent with as little consider- 
ation as if I had been the marketing steward, where there was some doubt 
as to the accuracy of his account. 

The following letter of which I happened to have kept a copy, 
will be a good illustration and I regret not having the manager's letter, 
to which this was a reply. 

Dec. 29, 1891. 
Dear Me. H. 

In answer to your letter I have to state as follows : 

One evening I was called upon by a Dr. Grigg, a female physician, who 
stated, she had taken a patient, a Mrs. Mosse, to the hospital and wished me 
the following morning to see the case with her, as she had to return home with- 
out delay. On my explanation that my duty did not require me to visit 
the hospital on the following morning, she of her own accord brought the 
patient to my office, and I received my usual fee for the consultation. I found 
the case to be one of the most extensive from cancerous ulceration I ever saw. 
She was a loathsome object, one unfit and not admissible to the hospital 
(by your own by-laws), and she has already died I have no doubt. 

The other case was the wife of a physician, and on learning that his wife 
could not receive my personal attention in the details of treatment, he brought 
her direct to my private hospital (without my knowledge) and willingly 
paid my regular rate of two hundred and sixty dollars per month. Surely the 
Woman's Hospital was no place for a patient who could afford to pay this 
amount and more. 

Now the fact is that both of these patients were fully able and willing to 
pay for my personal services, and expected to obtain them. They were simply 
deceived, as hundreds have been, in supposing that I conducted my private 
practice in the Woman's Hospital. It is a great injustice to the medical men 
who contribute so much to the actual support of the hospital, that the Gover- 
nors will not set this matter right. 

Now, my dear sir, I must ask what does this all mean? You have known 

of me longer than any other member of the Board, and from Mr. B you 

must have been made familiar with my record in the Woman's Hospital from 
the beginning ! In view of the past I am free to state that I have served this 
institution by a singleness of purpose actuated alone by the belief that it was 
part of the work God sent me into this world to do. Under these circum- 
stances I know that I have done more than simply to discharge my duty 
and have given to the hospital far more than I have ever received from it. I 
hold that there is no one connected with the Woman's Hospital who has the 



Intrigue and Wire-pulling 319 

true interest of the institution more at heart than I have. For many a year 
past I have sacrificed my own private interest by continuing to serve it. 

I therefore have the right to ask, what does all this mean and why should I 
be so frequently called to account for a lot of trumped-up charges and without 
the slightest foundation, so that I have been more annoyed in the last three 
months than for twenty- five years previous? 

No one in truth can say that I have not fully discharged my duty and I have 
quietly done so without interfering with the work of others. I may justly 
ask then, why am I alone of the Medical Board called so frequently to account ; 
and at the instigation of a subordinate? — one who seems to be empowered 
to report in his judgment as he sees fit on my official acts for investigation ! 

Mr. LeRoy can certainly have no personal motive in this matter and must 
be acting under some instruction for a purpose, or he is a mischief-maker and 
goes widely out of his proper line of duty! 

If he be instructed to follow this course, I have the right to ask, for what 
purpose? If the contrary be the case I certainly have the right to expect this 
petty annoyance to cease and that he be instructed to apply his zeal for the 
future in a more faithful discharge of his own duties. 

I have some difficulty in restraining my indignation that a man occupying 
the position that I do in this community and in my profession shotild be 
called on by a committee of investigation for such a frivolous and groundless 
presentation as these two cases sum up to be. 

I thank you for your courtesy and hope you will kindly present this matter 
to the Board, /row my standpoint; by doing so, like future investigations may 
be deemed unnecessary, and, possibly, it may be charitably assumed hereafter 
that my official acts are all performed, so far as the light is given me, in the 
best interests of the hospital. 

Yours very truly, 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 

There existed for many years I believe in the Woman's Hospital a 
greater degree of "wire-pulling" and intrigue than was ever practised 
in any other hospital and unfortunately I was a sufferer. Many of the 
Board of Governors, especially the early ones, and the Lady Managers, 
who labored in a true spirit to advance the prosperity, and to develop the 
hospital, fully appreciated the service I rendered. 

But after they passed away to their reward, strangers gradually filled 
their places, and I had no time or desire to gain favor nor look to my own 
interest while this influence of intrigue gradually became dominant. So 
that of late years, although there were always some exceptions, I believe 
many of the managers in their ignorance regarded me as a simple-minded 
old fossil, who had to be borne with for some reason unknown to them, 
and were as little impressed with the importance of my work as the 
physicians themselves, who were instrumental in creating the impression. 
For about twenty years before my resignation, I took no further part in 



320 Incidents of my Life 



the affairs of the hospital than that limited to the discharge of my duty, 
and having discharged that I proceeded to go my way without word with 
any one. I seldom met any of the managers except when my duty 
reqtiired it, or they wished me to render some special service; and from 
the simple reason that I saw little indication of a desire on their part to 
see me. I had occasion once to seek an interview with a former president 
of the Board of Managers of the Woman's Hospital "in the State of 
New York," now some years dead, and I ask in all sincerity that he may 
never be held accountable for his mismanagement, intrigue, and "wire- 
pulling." I do this notwithstanding I suffered more than any one else 
from his enmity. A sad comment on his influence among his friends was 
given at the end when I was the only physician connected with the 
hospital who attended his fimeral, and I did so in charity. 

The cause of our interview was due to the desire on my part to have an 
improvement made in the diet for the convalescent patients. He seemed 
perfectly indifferent to my request and when I offered a protest, his reply 
was: "See here, why the hell don't you get out of here, if it don't pay, 
or you don't like it. It is easy enough to fill your place! " 

This I found to be quite true a few years after when I resigned the 
position. 

This spirit of intrigue and demoralizing influence had its beginning 
within the hospital about the time of Dr. Sims's resignation, when by 
some underhand means he was placed in a false position and his forced 
resignation was not to the credit of the managers of the Woman's Hospital 
for which institution he had done so much at its foundation. It was the 
same influence which caused Dr. Sims to be misled in relation to myself, 
and which kept alive for years a report I could never check, that I was 
personally inimical to Dr. Sims, when I had never had any difficulty with 
him. The pure fabrications which were reported to him as of my utter- 
ance kept Dr. Sims so incensed that I was unable to enlighten him by any 
means. The appointment of Dr. George T. Harrison to the position of 
Visiting Surgeon, for which he was well fitted, likewise was defeated by 
this same influence of intrigue. The minutes of the Medical Board will 
show that he was nominated by me, and as an unusual occurrence on any 
nomination he received a unanimous indorsement by vote of the Medical 
Board. Dr. Harrison had been my assistant for many years, and it was 
the first and only time I ever made a personal effort for the election of 
any candidate. I endeavored to secure for him a sufficient number of 
votes, among the managers, to insure his election. As the misrepresenta- 
tion was made privately by one of the Medical Board who had voted 
for him, my influence was so entirely neutralized that at the time of the 
election Dr. Harrison's name was not even considered. As this influence 



Interview with Members of the Board 321 

has apparently ceased to exist, at least to his detriment, I am glad in 
this connection to place on record that at the present time he holds the 
position of one of the consulting surgeons to the institution, an honor 
he has deserved. 

Before reference to the closing of my connection with the Woman's 
Hospital it would be well, as part of the history of the hospital, to detail 
several incidents of interest where my judgment and influence, outside of 
my professional work, were relied upon On one occasion when Dr. 
Hanks was elected a member of the Medical Board, I had to be present 
as chairman of a committee in relation to some medical matters and had 
to report progress to the Board of Managers. Having discharged my 
business I was in the act of leaving the room when I was stopped by one 
of the managers seated by the door, either the late Mr. Philip van Valken- 
burg or the late Mr. George Bliss, for they both questioned me. But 
my memory is not clear after so long an interval and where no reason 
existed at the time to impress the circumstance on ra}^ mind. The man- 
ager who had detained me, I distinctly recollect, turned to the chairman 
and said: "We have the names of eleven surgeons before us from which 
to make our selection to fill the two vacancies existing in the Medical 
Board, and which are to be voted on to-day. I feel at a loss in the 
proper discharge of mj'- duty, for I know personally nothing as to the 
fitness of any of these gentlemen. As Dr. Emmet has served this hospital 
from the beginning and must know the best two men of the eleven for the 
position, I feel that I have the right as a manager, to call on him for that 
information." After some hesitation and from a feeling of delicacy, as 
I had nominated in the Medical Board Dr. Bache Emmet, a kinsman, as 
one of the candidates, I gave his name and that of Dr. Hanks and en- 
tered fully into detail as to my reasons for making the selections, "\i\nien 
I had finished the manager moved that the secretar>^ should cast the 
vote for filling the vacancies. On going out the manager thanked me 
for having relieved them from a difficult position, and stated, "If these 
gentlemen are elected they will be indebted to you alone for their 
appointment, as the friends of the other candidates have been so active 
that I am sure, without your endorsement, the names of neither of them 
would have been considered." Evidently the same influence had been 
exercised for the appointment of other candidates but in this instance 
failed from the unexpected force of circumstances due to my accidental 
presence. Messrs. Talbot and Hoppen were present, Mr. John E. Parsons 
was a member of the Board, but I cannot recall that he was in attendance, 
although he may have presided, but my impression is that Col. Davis 
was in the chair, and I think Mrs. Russell Sage was also present, as a 
Lady Manager. All the other members of the Board are now dead, so 



322 Incidents of my Life 

far as I have any knowledge. I have no knowledge as to how they were 
voted for, as the election was conducted at a later stage of the meeting. 
Twice I was called upon by the Board of Managers to exercise my 
influence as a Democrat, and of supposed influence, for the benefit of the 
Woman's Hospital. During the period I held the position as Surgeon-in- 
Chief, and while Tweed was still a powerful factor, the hospital became 
seriously embarrassed for the want of means in consequence of having 
given a free bed for each county in the State. I was asked by Mr. James 
W. Beekman, the chairman of the Board of Governors, and a personal 
friend of many years' standing, to go to Albany and see if relief could not 
be obtained from the Legislature. The Board which filled its own 
vacancies was at that time I believe formed entirely of members belong- 
ing to the Republican party, and its committee had failed in accom- 
plishing anything by an application to the Democratic Legislature, a 
condition which should not have existed, and would have been out of place 
in Utopia, but it seemed to be a natural result after the example the 
Republicans had given as soon as they came into power during the Civil 
War. At that time I was more familiar with political matters than at 
present, and knew that the power "behind the throne" was Mr. Peter 
B. Sweeny, a former Park Commissioner, who was the first and the best 
we ever had in that position. He was a man of taste and by his direction 
every feattu-e was carried out as planned by the engineer, who devised the 
laying out of Central Park, and who may have accepted some of the sug- 
gestions of Mr. Sweeny. To his good taste we were indebted for the 
removal of the hideous wooden picket fence which surrounded all the city 
parks. He trimmed the trees and planted others in the city and was the 
first to make any regular effort to improve the grounds, which were but 
enclosures. He also was the first mover in providing all the lands which 
are to beautify the growing city in the futtire parks. After his term of 
service had expired and being a man of influence in the Democratic 
party, he directed the politics of the State. He spent the greater part of 
his time at Albany and was seldom seen out of his room, from which point 
he directed every step taken by the Legislature. I arrived in Albany late 
in the evening and next morning sent my card and a letter asking for an 
interview at his convenience. I stated that the hospital had become 
involved with a debt of thirty thousand dollars all of which had been con- 
tracted in taking care of the patients from every portion of the State, and 
that we were justly entitled to relief. I gave my card and letter to a 
negro waiter who returned almost immediately after and showed me 
directly into the bedroom of the commissioner, who had just gotten out 
of bed. His appearance was certainly picturesque, but not comme il 
faut for holding a reception. I soon got my wits together and explained 



Aid from State Legislature 323 

the stupidity of the negro, who had deHvered neither my card nor letter. 
I told him who I was, that I was as busy a man as he was, only a few words 
were necessary to state my business, and no time was better than the 
present; that the letter I should leave would give all details in full; that 
as I gave my services to the hospital I thought that I should be free from 
having to look after its money affairs. That we must get aid from the 
State or we would have to close the hospital ; that I knew a number of the 
members of the Legislature, but that I had come direct to him, as I 
considered the whole matter would rest on his decision. That I would 
leave it in his hands, there was no money in it for any one, and that he 
should rather be obliged to me for presenting the opportunity for so 
purely a charitable object. That I regretted greatly the circumstances 
under which we had been forced to make our first acquaintance. I thanked 
him for his patience and bade him good-bye, as I had just time to 
catch the train for New York. He had not uttered a sound throughout 
the interview and I felt that I had rather astonished him by what might 
be termed a "cheeky" course, but it was the only one applicable under 
the pircumstances. 

A few days after my old friend, Mr. Theo. Bailey Myers, on his return 
from Albany, happened to take a seat alongside of the ex-commissioner 
with whom he was acquainted. In the course of their conversation Mr. 
Myers was asked if he knew Dr. Emmet of New York, and being told 
that he did, the response was to the effect, "The chap came into my room 
the other morning just as I got out of bed, and told me he wanted $30,000 
for the Woman's Hospital, and that I was the only person who could get 
it for him, and I really believe he thought I was going to take the matter 
in hand for him!" Mr. Myers stated that I was a very busy man and a 
man of but few words, and that he had no doubt I expected the com- 
missioner to attend to the matter. My whole course had been so uncon- 
ventional and different from what he had been accustomed to receive, as 
the "Grand Mogul," that he was struck with the ludicrous feature, and 
burst out in a hearty fit of laughter. 

About a month after a stranger called to see me during my office hours, 
and stated that the bill would be passed by the Legislature and that it would 
be reached in regular order during the last night of the session. That I 
would get what I had asked for, provided the bill was not displaced from 
its proper position on the docket. That in the haste and confusion of the 
last night of the session there was always great danger of a bill getting 
"joggled," when at the last moment it was not properly looked after. 
To guard against this he had called to advise me to write to a certain 
person stating that I would like to see him, and to hand him $250.00 
in bills and I would have no further trouble or expense. Of course I 



324 Incidents of my Life 

understood what it all meant and I paid it out of my own pocket, as the 
only thing to be done, at the same time I knew that neither the com- 
mittee of the Legislature, which had reported favorably on the bill, nor 
the ex-commissioner knew of the threatened hold-up which was no doubt 
a private one and a little matter of the assistant clerk of the House. 

A week after, I was roused about three o'clock in the morning to 
receive a telegram from the ex-commissioner, to inform me that the bill 
had just passed and the amount was subject to the action of our treasurer. 
I thus received what I asked for, and not another public institution got a 
penny that session, as it was about the beginning of the Tweed trouble. 
Since the development of the system of bribing and graft after the Civil 
War, which has poisoned almost every relation of life in our country, this 
was probably as clean and honest a transaction as was ever passed 
through our Legislature by either party. 

At a later period I was requested by the Board of Governors to see 
what could be done with the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York, 
in granting permission to the Woman's Hospital to sell the block of land, 
then the site of the hospital, between Lexington and Fourth avenues and 
Forty-ninth and Fiftieth streets, which had formerly been granted from 
the city for hospital purposes. The Board of Governors had decided to 
change the site of the hospital to Momingside Heights and i loth Street, if 
the permission could be obtained, as on that site the hospital had al- 
ready acquired title to a portion of the land needed. The proposition 
had been under consideration for several years but nothing had been 
accomplished with the Board of Aldermen. Personally I was opposed 
to any such radical change, as I believed the locality was the proper one 
for the hospital, and one where good service could have been rendered 
for the next fifty years. The site at that time had become a very 
noisy one, but, if necessary to change the same amount of land could have 
been obtained in the neighborhood for less than half the receipt from the 
sale. In addition, the proper hospital could have been built and with an 
endowment fund left to aid in its future support, and this plan I had 
hoped to the last moment would be adopted, as the most rational and 
prudent one to follow. 

When the matter was referred to me, Mr. Richard Croker was then 
the controlling power in the City of New York, as the chief leader of 
Tammany Hall, and the first step necessary was to see him. In a chance 
conversation with Mr. John D. Crimmins I mentioned the subject and 
stated I had never met Mr. Croker. Mr. Crimmins said. Come and dine 
with me, on a certain day, as you will then meet Mr. Croker and you can 
see him afterward at his office. I was seated alongside of Mr. Croker 
who reminded me of General Grant, as he seemed in the same manner to 



Tammany Hall 325 

know the value of every word, and he wasted none. Yet we had some 
conversation and I was rather pleased with his acquaintance. I saw no 
evidence of the cloven foot, which I had been almost forced to believe 
through the expression of public opinion did exist, notwithstanding his 
patent leather shoes seemed to be normally filled and shaped. 

After a few days I called to see Mr. Croker at his office in Tammany 
Hall. He was polite, heard all I had to say, but said little himself, except 
to express a doubt as to it being a wise move to change the locality of the 
hospital. He gave me a letter to the chairman of the Board of Alder- 
men, v/hom I found was also opposed to the change and to the city giving 
up its title to the land, but said that the matter would come before the 
Board in the regular way, to be referred to a committee, and that I would 
be notified when to appear before it, I was summoned in the course of a 
week, and after some discussion it was only on my representation as a 
physician, in regard to the bad effects of the constant noise caused by the 
passing of a train every minute or two, that permission was granted to 
sell the land, giving the city the same claim on the new purchase. Thus 
ended an honest transaction, carried through promptly and without the 
cost of a penny to any one, but for my car-fare. 

Tammany Hall was organized over a century ago, and has a dual 
purpose, a benevolent feature and a political one. The public know 
nothing of the benevolent phase, although it has done good work and I am 
told is always in operation. The political feature is aggressive and is 
always active, hence, as with a progressive individual in any community, 
Tammany is never free from the opposition of a host of enemies, by which 
its members are always being maligned, and the more incredible a story 
can be made the more certainly will it gain credence with those of the 
public who are not in sympathy. I have been asked how it is that every 
grand sachem of Tammany can become so wealthy and be an honest 
man. I can give one source at least of his wealth. 

Previous to every election a general committee of Tammany Hall be- 
comes active in raising as large a fund as possible for political purposes 
and this is given to the grand sachem, who is expected to carry the 
election for the Democratic party, and, to do this, much of his time be- 
tween the elections is occupied in keeping the district leaders active. 
His chief business is to carr)^ the election by spending such portion of 
the fund, provided for that purpose, as his judgment may dictate. No 
accounting is ever required by the organization, and he becomes entitled 
to the remainder to compensate him for his services. As this is an under- 
standing between the members of Tammany and its leader, it is a matter 
with which the public have no business."^ Should the election happen to 
go against the party, and there should exist any evidence that the result 



326 Incidents of my Life 

might have been different, the leader is generally promptly deposed. No 
one can be at the head of the Tammany Hall organization for any 
length of time without becoming a very wealthy man, as the position 
gives him many other opportunities for adding to his wealth, if he is 
able to avail himself of his advantages, and he can do so by a perfectly 
honest and legitimate course. 

It is a remarkable circumstance as to how large a proportion of in- 
dividuals there are in the community, unable to divest themselves of the 
belief that a Catholic and Democratic office-holder is seldom an honest 
man, especially if he should be a member of Tammany, and the impression 
thus existing rests as a rule entirely on charges made without proof. 
Of Tammany I know nothing personally beyond having had many 
friends in the organization whom I thought were honest men. Nor do I 
know of anything in the teaching of the Catholic Church, or in politics. 
Democratic or Republican, tending to cause dishonesty. When an 
offfce-holder^has proved to be dishonest I have always thought the flaw 
existed in the individual, who failed to Hve up to the requirements which 
would be exacted by both his religion and party. 

I belong to a faith and political party which are so generally mis- 
represented and not always from ignorance, that I have long since ceased 
to believe anything I hear or read against friend or foe, unless accom- 
panied with the proof. It was a matter of common report that as soon as 
Mayor Low came into office as mayor of the City of New York, a most 
thorough investigation was made of all the books in the different de- 
partments of the city which had been for so many years in the hands of 
the Democratic party, and they were all found presumably correct. 
At least, we have no reason to believe that the Republican party would, 
from any motive of charity, have suppressed the information had it been 
found otherwise. I thus assume it has been proved by this investigation 
that the Democratic administration had honestly conducted the affairs 
of the City of New York in the past. This circumstance is of interest to 
me as a Democrat. 

At the time of my resignation as Visiting Surgeon, November i, 
1900, I requested to be allowed to make some special suggestions for 
the benefit of the Woman's Hospital. At a regular meeting of the man- 
agers I did so and in presenting my resignation I stated my reason, that, 
while I had never been in better condition for the work, I was advanc- 
ing in years and I wished to sever my connection at a time when I hoped 
I might be missed for the services rendered by me. Moreover, I was 
unwilling to serve longer, as I had known of noted instances where 
physicians outlived their usefulness in such a position. 

I stated I had found there was a field for new surgical investigation in 



Request Title of Emeritus Surgeon 327 

connection with certain injuries from child-bearing, of which the pro- 
fession as yet knew nothing; that I had been desirous for years to in- 
vestigate the matter by original research, but could never spare the 
necessary time to carry out my plan. I desired the granting of a special 
favor and the only one I had ever asked for myself, in return for my long 
service, by making me Emeritus Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital, and 
have my son appointed Surgeon, as my successor. This would enable me 
to work in connection with him, which I could not do with any one other- 
wise related. As I had closed my private hospital and given up all 
private practice, I would in the future be able to give more time to the 
hospital than I had ever been able to do before in advancing the special 
work I expected to undertake with the hope of being able at some future 
time to do something for the relief of those cases which had been dis- 
charged as incurable. I had remained so far in touch with them that 
many could be hunted up and placed in my son's service, if he should be 
appointed. I hoped then to enter on a new field of original investigation, 
in which, as in the past with Dr. Sims and myself, the work would re- 
dound to the reputation of the Woman's Hospital. I stated, moreover, 
that under ordinary circumstances I would have hesitated to recommend 
my son for the position, through the fear that in the weakness of human 
nature I might exaggerate his worth. But after due reflection I felt I 
could advocate his appointment in the best interest of the hospital. If 
there was any value in connection with the teaching of Dr. Sims or myself, 
which had apparently caused the name of the Woman's Hospital to be 
known throughout the civilized world for its original work, my son, from 
the force of circumstances, was the only one who could carry on the work 
after me. 

Through his connection with the Woman's Hospital for nearly twenty 
years and having had charge of my private hospital for a long period, he 
had assisted me in the performance of every operation I had performed 
during that time and had charge of the after-treatment of all those cases. 
It was well known to the Board of Managers that during these twenty 
years as Assistant Surgeon at the hospital he had performed, and 
especially of late years, a large proportion of the more difficult surgical 
operations in my service, and that his results were fully equal to those 
obtained by any other surgeon. Moreover, should my judgment prove 
at fault, in consequence of my relationship, the Board possessed the 
remedy, as no appointment at the present time was for a longer period 
than a year. Should he prove not fit, he should not be appointed for 
another year under any circumstances, and I would be the first to advo- 
cate such a course. 

My communication was received with the utmost apparent courtesy, 



328 Incidents of my Life 

but that was the last of it, as not so much as the comphment of a nomina- 
tion and vote was given to conferring either the honorary position I had 
asked for myself, nor to the appointment of my son as my successor. 

I received a fulsome set of resolutions in relation to my services to 
the hospital, bearing the earmarks of having been drawn up by one of 
my supposed professional friends in the Medical Board. If he possessed 
any sense of the humorous he must have enjoyed greatly the construc- 
tion, of which I will give him credit for not believing the truth of a 
single encomium. The Board of Governors are to be judged from the 
same stand-point, for had they as individuals believed in the truth of 
these resolutions, claimed to have been passed unanimously, they as lay- 
men would have hesitated in refusing any request made by me, in return 
for the long and invaluable service set forth as having been rendered 
by me to the hospital. 

I never had the shghtest issue with any of the male or female members 
of the Board of Governors, so that they could only have been influenced 
by the apparently passive action of the medical men connected with the 
institution ; in fact I have been told that if a single member of the Medical 
Board had given any expression as to a desire or advantage to the hospital 
that I should continue connected with it, the result would have been 
different. The estimate shown by the action of the Medical .Board as to 
the value of my life-work and after so long an association, certainly pre- 
sents an occasion for a sad comment. The comment is no less justifiable 
in connection with the statement that since I was placed at the head of 
the Woman's Hospital, to the time of my resignation, there has been no 
medical man connected with the institution who was not thereby placed 
directly or indirectly in my debt. The few whom I did not appoint and 
who served in the hospital were at least provided through my efforts 
with a field for gaining experience. With my instructions to some and 
the opportunity thus given to others, the stepping-stone for their advance 
in life was afforded directly or indirectly by me, since none could have 
had the advantage of the Woman's Hospital had it not been in existence. 
However, it is probably not just to hold them responsible for a want of 
appreciation for something of which they failed to acquire any knowledge, 
but I felt more their failure to have profited by my teaching, as I labored 
to give all every advantage. 

But every cloud is said to have a silver lining, and in proof I can claim 
to have received more than my due from the vast majority of those who 
had been connected with the hospital, or were benefited by my teaching ; 
and their honest and sincere acknowledgment of their indebtedness 
forms the most gratifying feature in my professional life. Before my 
resignation I was bitterly opposed to the plan contemplated for moving 



New Site for Hospital 329 

the Woman's Hospital from Forty-ninth Street to One Hundred and 
Tenth Street and I did not make friends by my opposition. 

But one single rational plea could have been offered to justify the 
move, and that was in consequence of the noise from passing trains and 
from the steam whistle and bell ringing, I claimed that such a nuisance 
would have to be done away with in the near future, and in less time than 
I predicted steam was abolished and electricity employed. And when the 
sale was made but half of the block should have been sold to the railroad, 
as a building of any height could have been erected on Lexington Avenue, 
or on any other property in the immediate neighborhood, where the 
wishes of the founders of the Woman's Hospital could have been carried 
out for at least the next fifty years, and would have been within reach of 
the poor whom it is supposed they wished benefited. It has been moved 
to a locality beyond the reach of the poor people, who could not be 
received as free patients if they came, as for many years the present 
hospital will be unable to meet its expenses from any other source than 
by donations and from the board of patients brought in by the physicians. 

As I was in no way responsible beyond obtaining permission to sell the 
land, I am now fully satisfied that the move has been made for starting 
a new hospital, with which neither the name of Dr. Sims nor myself can 
ever in any way be associated. Our names will be inseparably connected 
in medical history with the Woman's Hospital, as we were the only ones 
who ever did any original work there, and from us the hospital became 
known throughout the world. 

In the absence of original work on the part of the medical men con- 
nected with the present hospital it is destined to remain iinknown to 
fame, even in name by reflected light, and it cannot exist as a special 
hospital for the same reason, and must degenerate into simply a boarding- 
house, supported by the board of those who could as well be treated in a 
general hospital. However well the work may be done, which is done, 
there is nothing which is not equally well done elsewhere in every well- 
appointed hospital in the country. 

Therefore a necessity for the new hospital at the time of the move did 
not exist and does not at the present time, and its failure as a special 
hospital is therefore inevitable. 



Chapter XXIV 



My gratuitous service of over fifty years in different hospitals — My private hospital — Phy- 
__sicians should have more authority in the management of hospitals — Present system of 
being nanaged by successful business men, where their wealth seems the chief recom- 
mendation, has nothing to recommend it — The young physicians do not receive the 
consideration due them as members of a learned profession — Their food as a rule is the 
poorest, while with their work and responsibility they need the best — Their sleeping accom- 
modations are generally inadequate and always crowded — They are compelled to live in 
the same room in which they sleep — Every physician in a hospital should be paid something 
— His services are valued less than that of a servant girl — The public and not the physician 
receives the benefit of the experience gained by the extra service in a hospital — The law 
does not require anything more after a physicain has received his diploma — The ad- 
ditional knowledge is an undoubted advantage, but to gain it he is taxed in the loss of 
time and for his current expenses — The appointment of the senior physicians and sur- 
geons should not go by favor as at present, but by a competitive examination, as is the 
custom in all public service but the judiciary, and the term of service should be limited by 
age — The senior physician should also be paid by the public, as the judge on the bench — 
There is no more reason that the service of one should be a gratuitous one, than that 
of the other! — By a competitive examination and proper compensation the public would 
be better served than at present — Lady managers are not, as a rule, fitted to judge as to the 
qualification of a physician for hospital appointments — An interesting illustration given — 
Both public and private hospitals need more public supervision than is given them at 
present — Some views expressed as to the management of Catholic hospitals — As a rule, the 
charitable institutions of the Jews are better managed than those under the care of either 
Protestants or Catholics — As to the best care of the destitute — The members of a branch 
of the Irish Federation in New York organized the first branch in America of the United 
Irish League, on Mr. Redmond's appointment as leader — Mr. Redmond has proved a most 
successful leader of the Irish Party. 



URING the whole fifty years of my professional life 
I was in daily association with hospital work, and 
for over thirty-five years I maintained a private 
hospital of forty beds, more complete in detail than 
any public one; therefore, if it be possible to acquire 
a practical knowledge of hospital management, I 
' should have obtained it. In consequence of the 
knowledge which I believe I have acquired relating to the practical 

330 




Young Physicians not Properly Treated 331 

management of a hospital, I feel it to be all the more a duty to comment 
on the defective methods now generally adopted. 

The condition is an absurd one that physicians should have nothing 
to say and can exert so little influence in the management of the hospital 
to which they are attached. It seems as if to-day the only qualification 
considered as to the fitness of a Governor or Manager is as to the amount 
of wealth he or she may possess. It would be equally absurd to put a busy 
practitioner of medicine on the board of management for the steel or 
sugar trust, or any other industrial concern, and expect him to take an 
active part in directing the detail work, as to make hospital managers 
of these "business" men. 

Under these circumstances he must necessarily be but a figurehead 
as to qualification and must leave the detail work to the employee, who 
cannot be held properly under any check or directed. There should be 
no board of management attached to any hospital without having 
physicians constituting a majority of its members, that at least the 
medical service should not suffer. 

A still greater evil rests with relation to the resident younger phy- 
sician. After an experience of over fifty years, I can truthfully state that 
I have never known an instance of where they have been properly housed 
and fed, or where they have been treated with the proper respect due 
them as members of a learned profession. The members of the medical 
profession are generally regarded by those in authority as a necessary 
nuisance, and treated as such. I once overheard a lady manager of 
the Woman's Hospital say to a friend: "What charming and Christian- 
like work this would be among the sick and afflicted, if we could 
only get rid of the doctors!" She would have been even more con- 
firmed in her opposition to the profession if I had given her my opinion, 
that there was about as little in her relating to Christianity as could be 
conceived of. But I may have erred in my judgment. I certainly am 
aware that I have not always been politic, for this woman suspected 
I regarded her as a Pharisee, and as I took no pains to disabuse her 
mind, to some extent I believe that I was responsible for her dislike of 
physicians. She seemed to be a member of some committee, the duty 
of which had nothing to do with the management of the domestic affairs 
of the hospital, but to assume that of the clergyman, and, without judg- 
ment, to the decided detriment of the patient. As a mild protest ^on my 
part had no effect, I had to tell her, if she would attend to her unquestion- 
able but neglected duties, connected with the domestic interests of the 
hospital, I would try to attend to mine, by caring professionally for the 
patient, and would promptly call in a clergyman whenever needed. 

But I have digressed. It is all important that the young physician 



332 Incidents of my Life 

should have a Hght and sunny room and be by himself. As he is seldom 
able to leave the hospital during the daytime he needs the sunlight, and 
it is necessary that he should be by himself and not be disturbed in his 
rest every time his room-mate is called upon. It is more necessary 
for the physician to receive the best food than for any one else in the 
house, in order to preserve his health, for his duties are the most exacting, 
and so called " Irish stews, " hash, and a "scrap " diet can not sustain him 
properly. At the present time from what I hear in most of the hospitals 
of New York the food of the young men is often not so good as that 
provided for the servants, and that is poor enough, and only equalled by 
much often given the patients. 

There is too much money put into the present hospital buildings for 
show, with the purpose of attracting special attention and maudlin 
sentiment for the use of the managers to beg with in order to wipe out a 
debt which should never have been contracted. It seems to be neces- 
sarily a part of the stock-in-trade for a hospital to be in debt, as a means 
of' exciting sympathy for those "who are heavily burdened fromi their 
labor in the vineyard of the Lord!" 

But let us again return to our subject. The young physicians are 
generally served with their meals in any out-of-the-way- place, with the 
least appearance possible as to any suggestion of the comforts of home, 
and very frequently they are forced to take their meals with those they 
would not be called upon to associate with in private life. The servant- 
girl is often provided with better quarters, although they may be more 
crowded, and with better food, and is subjected to less restraint while 
she receives some compensation in addition for her services. No matter 
what the capacity of a young physician may be, he must necessarily 
render more valuable service at all times than a servant -girl, and he 
should, therefore, be paid something for his services. 

Every physician connected with a public hospital should receive some 
compensation from the public authorities for the public benefit rendered. 
On what grounds in justice should the physician be taxed by having to 
render a gratuitous service to the public for the experience he may 
gain, when it is the public who will receive the greater benefit from the 
knowledge acquired? This custom took its origin in the early days of 
Christianity and continued for centuries after, when the priest was the 
only one of education and the only one with any medical knowledge in 
the community, and he also was the hospital nurse, but he no longer fills 
the position of physician, and the physician should no longer give his 
hospital service free to the public. It is true while in practice he may 
earn a living and sometimes more, but not, as a rule, does he receive from 
the pubhc that which he is entitled to, from the fact that after he has 



Gratuitous Service of Physicians 333 

gained that experience he never receives in after-Hfe compensation for 
half his labor. It is only a matter of conscience with any physician that 
he sacrifices the additional time, and incurs the additional expense to gain 
this practical knowledge, by which the public is alone benefited. It is a 
most serious matter with many to give the time and obtain the means 
during the eight or ten years necessary to fully fit a physician for practice. 
There is no law to force any physician to make this additional sacrifice. 
If he did not seek to escape an infinite amount of worry and sense of 
responsibility in after-life, he might be content in his ignorance to hold, 
"where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise." A physician with only 
a theoretical knowledge of his business is lawfully able to begin practice 
as soon as he receives his diploma. It is certainly folly to hold that the 
public is benefited by the practice of the ignorant practitioner who is 
probably not conscious of the deficiency, or by the charlatan, who has 
no care beyond robbing all with whom he comes in contact. It is there- 
fore entirely for the public benefit that a physician should obtain all the 
practical knowledge possible. The lawyer is not expected to render any 
professional service free to a public hospital, unless he does so voluntarily! 
Why, therefore, should a physician be forced to do so? 

Of late years a physician is called upon to pay an additional tax; 
the value of his professional services is of secondary importance, and his 
standing with the hospital authorities is just in proportion to the number 
of patients he sends to the institution able to pay the most for their board, 
and thus contribute largely to paying the expenses of the hospital. If 
he is negligent of this exacted duty his services will soon be dispensed 
with, or his position will be rendered uncomfortable. 

With all it is nothing but money, money, with less and less true 
charity felt year after year for the poor, and for whom there are at best 
but scant accommodations furnished in proportion to their number and 
need. This often necessitates, from lack of accommodation, their dis- 
charge from the hospital before it is advisable to do so, in order to make 
room for others. As one of the urgent evils of the day, there are too many 
patients treated in the hospital simply for their board, who are able to pay 
something outside for attendance at home. This practice is now carried 
to such an extent that on an average there remain only from ten to 
fifteen years a physician can expect to gain a support and a maintenance 
for his family after his death, while the rule is to leave his family in desti- 
tution. His income is seldom so great as that of an average boss plumber, 
who acquires only a rudimentary knowledge of his business. 

It has been only of late years that hospital managers have been 
willing for a physician to receive any compensation from a patient 
whom he has sent into the hospital; yet he was expected to treat all 



334 Incidents of my Life 



free, who elect to enter his service, and without any reference to their 
means. 

Within a comparatively recent period before I resigned from the 
Woman's Hospital, one of the lady managers "charitably" fitted up five 
suites, one to be under the care of each physician on duty, for which an 
extra charge of fifty dollars a week was to be made, each physician was 
to keep his suite filled, from which it was expected that the hospital would 
thus be in receipt of a steady income of a thousand dollars a month, and 
yet at that time the managers were unwilling for the physicians to receive 
any compensation from those who could afford to pay. This was one of 
the two occasions in late years where I was able to exercise influence to 
defeat the whole plan, and not one of these rooms I believe was ever 
occupied. 

It is claimed that well-to-do patients are better served by going to a 
hospital than they can be in a private house. This is an absurdity, as 
with trained nurses and a moderate outlay it is possible to give every 
advantage in a private house. Where a surgeon sends a private patient 
and he receives his full compensation, as in private practice, there may 
be something claimed by the surgeon in the advantage to himself of being 
sure, in case of emergency, the patient will receive the prompt attendance 
of the resident physician, but nothing more. The injustice of the practice 
is felt by the majority of physicians and stu-geons, who have no hospital 
position or influence to obtain one. Their patients leave them and 
arrange beforehand with some hospital physician, who sends the patient 
in on their card as if from his private practice, so that the favored few 
who have hospital appointments receive all the benefit. 

The fact is, the whole system of hospital management, in relation 
at least to the physicians and surgeons, is defective if not unsound 
throughout. The best men in the profession do not always get hospital 
appointments, especially where the appointment goes by favor or in- 
fluence. No medical man should receive such an appointment without 
an examination and after having been foimd competent by a paid board 
of irreproachable men who have no connection with the hospital. At least 
some action in the line I have indicated is necessary, and he should be 
fully compensated for his services by receiving a certain percentage on the 
cost to the public of keeping the hospital in operation. Moreover, after 
a stated period he should afterwards undergo a second examination, to 
judge as to his continued fitness, as few men keep up their studies after 
they have fairly settled down in practice. This plan would insure to the 
public the best service and it would then pay for the best service, which it 
does not now always receive. A competitive examination would also give 
the worthy young man of equal fitness a chance for gaining a position 



Women not Good Hospital Managers 335 

which is to-day impossible. If the younger man has to wait until he can 
claim a position from his professional reputation, it can seldom be gained 
before a period of life when a younger man than he would render to the 
public a better service. As to undergoing a competitive examination, 
fairly conducted, it could be no disparagement to the dignity of any one 
but the inefficient. The right of knowledge as to the efficiency of a 
physician would lie with the public beyond question as to a quid pro quo, 
if it paid for services rendered. 

Finally, as in the public service, with the Army and Navy and often 
with the judge on the Bench, there should exist a limit as to age, when the 
service must cease, and fifty or sixty years should be the limit, except in 
the consultation service, where any period would answer short of second 
childhood. Many men are competent to render better service later in 
life, but with very few does there exist an\ incentive, and a limit would 
provide against many hanging on too long. It is reasonable to expect 
that the incumbent could retire without needing the position to sustain 
his reputation during the few years he may remain in practice. The 
younger man needs the position, as he has yet to gain the reputation, and 
has at the same time both the knowledge and activity for better serving 
the public. 

I wish to make no invidious reflections on any of the lady managers, 
as I have known a number, and without respect to creed, who were above 
reproach, and I would as soon doubt the justice of Almighty God as to 
believe they would fail in receiving reward for their good deeds in this 
world. There have been many others, however, whom I found impossible 
to understand, but, beyond the natural outbreak of a reasonable degree of 
temper sometimes, I have tried not to be unjust. But there are certain 
positions for which women are not fitted, for experience teaches they are 
by nature partisans. 

I have never yet met a woman who, in my judgment, should have a 
vote, except as a figurehead, or ever take part in the election of a medical 
man for a hospital appointment, nor should she be placed in a jury-box, 
for the same reason. I make this statement in no reflection on the in- 
tellectual status of women, as in my experience their average intelligence 
is better than that of men. I cannot recall a single instance in my ex- 
perience where the opinion of a sensible woman was at fault on any sub- 
ject relating to every-day life if she gave it offhand on being asked, and 
yet she would be unable to reach any conclusion based on logical reasoning. 

The first impression of being able to judge quickly is given as an 
instinct to woman for her protection. There never was but one Portia, 
and she was a creature of the imagination. 

Women are not qualified for making medical appointments and at 



336 Incidents of my Life 

the same time I must state, as my opinion, there are very few business 
men any better qualified, but many would seek to make a judicious 
selection on the information obtained from physicians outside. 

This I will illustrate by an instance which occurred some years ago in 
the Woman's Hospital and with the details of which I am famihar. A 
vacancy had occurred in the position of surgeon, and according to the 
by-laws the Medical Board had the privilege of sending in the names 
of a certain number of physicians, for the consideration of the Board 
of Governors, although it often happened the action of the Medical 
Board was ignored in the selection. 

The late Dr. Charles Carroll Lee had been an assistant for a number 
of years to the late Dr. Peasley and the latter nominated on this occa- 
sion Dr. Lee, who received the unanimous vote of the Board and the only 
one who did so among five or six other men who were nominated at 
the same time. When the selection for filling the vacancy came up for 
consideration before the Board of Managers, Mr. John A. Parsons, a 
member, nominated Dr. Lee, when he was interrupted by one of the 
lady managers, who expressed her surprise at the nomination and with 
the query: "Do you not know he is a Jesuit?" Mr. Parsons's answer 
was: "Why, Madam, I always heard he was a surgeon." He then ex- 
plained to the Board that while he, as a member, was officially responsi- 
ble so far as his vote would influence the result, he was without means of 
being able to judge of the fitness of any medical man for the position. 
Dr. Lee's name had been endorsed by the whole Medical Board, which 
was the only source to which he could look for the necessary information ; 
he would therefore vote for Dr. Lee, but in case he was misled he proposed 
to hold the Medical Board strictly to account for their action. Dr. Lee 
received the appointment notwithstanding he was a "Jesuit," and only, 
I believe, in consequence of Mr. Parsons's praiseworthy and judicial 
position. 

A few days before the meeting of the Board of Governors, I called on 
one of the lady managers, with whom I had been almost in daily associa- 
tion for many years, to urge Dr. Lee's appointment. After having heard 
what I had to say, she turned to me with a cold, if not a merciless ex- 
pression, and said: "Dr. Emmet, I do not know how you got inhere, but 
we are determined that the Jesuits shall never get a foothold in this 
institution." I so far forgot myself as to burst out laughing in her face, 
and answered that she was quite right, as I could not conceive of a more 
incongruous position of affairs than the Jesuits having the management 
of a Woman's Hospital. That such a thing should never be allowed, if 
from no other reason than a sense of propriety; if any effort was ever 
made on the part of the Jesuits to get control, I would most heartily 



Hospital Appointments 337 



exert all the influence in my power to prevent it. I, moreover, stated that 
I had somehow been under the impression that the Jesuits had been more 
sinned against than sinning, and was therefore unprepared to understand 
the possibility of the existence of such a sportive tendency on their part 
as the manager feared. I believed the Woman's Hospital was yet safe 
from the danger she anticipated. That I had a brother-in-law in the 
Order who, I knew, would not be likely to lend himself to any such step 
as she feared, and he probably was the only Jesuit who had ever heard of 
the Woman's Hospital, and he only through my connection. I assured 
her in addition, that looking after the diseases of women really could never 
come within the vocation of the Jesuit Order, as their business was con- 
fined strictly to teaching boys and young men in schools and colleges, and 
she might certainly make her mind easy that the hospital would remain 
free from their influence. 

I said, moreover, a Jesuit is a Catholic priest, always the most learned 
man that it is possible to make of the individual, that he may be able to 
teach to the best advantage. Formerly, when members of the Order 
were placed in charge sometimes of separate parishes in Catholic countries 
and thus were thrown in contact with the world, outside of their Order 
frequently, as the only educated members of the community, they took 
part as individuals in public affairs and as politicians, and thus excited the 
enmity of those in opposition. But there was nothing in the teaching of 
the Church or the Order to encourage such a course, and so far as either 
would exercise any influence it would be to forbid it. That many Protes- 
tant clergymen, as she knew, never hesitated to preach political sermons 
and to urge their congregations to vote in accord with the inclination of 
the clergyman. Yet it would not be just to hold the authorities of any 
of these sects responsible for the individual action of these clergymen. 
That while Dr. Lee was a member of the Catholic Church, he had no 
more closer relation with the working of the Jesuit Order than she had. 

After a moment's hesitation, as if in doubt as to my reliability, her 
answer was: "Dr. Emmet, it is all very well and you may say what you 
think best, but we know what the Jesuits have done in the past, and we 
know what they would do again if they had the opportunity, and we are 
determined they shall never get a foothold here!" 

Poor woman! She doubtless voted against Dr. Lee as a "Jesuit," 
and thought she was rendering a service to God by doing so! She has 
long since gone to join the great majority and by this time probably 
she has become more charitable. 

No hospital, public or private, should exist without a license or charter 
to protect the public against the quack and the professional shark. 
The public hospital should be subjected to a supervision of the public 



338 Incidents of my Life 

authorities wherever the physicians are paid for their professional services. 
I have the credit for having opened the first private hospital, and I was 
prompted to do so in the best interests of my patients, as they were there- 
by benefited to a degree which was impossible to obtain in any public one. 
But may I never be held responsible for the abuse of practice existing to- 
day in many of the so-called private hospitals. They should also be 
licensed and placed under a sufficient judicious supervision to check such 
abuses and to which the honest practitioner could never object. It is 
easy enough for the authorities to ascertain accurately as to those who 
might be termed "above suspicion." 

From observation at home and abroad I have formed the opinion 
that no hospital should be allowed to exist as the private property of 
any Order of Sisters who are "in the world," and where the whole 
power and management of money matters rests with the Mother Superior. 
No rule is without exception, but human nature is too weak to put even 
a saint on earth in such a position, unless the vocation be to care for the 
poor and for those in poverty. 

Everything under such circumstances goes by favor in the influence 
of a single individual, and the desire for the accumulation of property 
becomes irresistible, to the detriment of the faith and the loss of the true 
spirit of charity, which our Lord would claim if He were on earth. 

If a purely Catholic hospital is desirable, it should exist as church 
property, and all medical matters be placed strictly tmder the manage- 
ment of the board of medical men on duty, and with these there should 
be associated a board of managers or trustees, but in the minority, a 
certain number of clergymen appointed by the church to represent its 
interests. The Bishop should have power to suspend or remove a surgeon 
in accord with specified rules of the by-laws, in case a majority of the 
medical board fail to meet the exigencies within the time designated. 

The "Sisters" should have charge of nursing the sick and of the do- 
mestic affairs of the hospital, but under the supervision of the Medical 
Board in all matters pertaining to medical affairs. 

To my knowledge there had been scarcely a single Catholic physician 
of prominence within the period of my connection with medical affairs, 
who could hold a position for any length of time in one of these hospitals, 
if he "interfered" or made any effort to have the medical affairs of the 
hospital conducted on any other line than that meeting with the approval 
of the Mother Superior. Until recently, it has been impossible for the 
young Catholic physicians, and especially in surgery, to gain in this 
country any practical knowledge of their profession, unless in a hospital 
conducted by those of another faith. It has been through no spirit of 
tolerance that in these Catholic institutions all the important medical 



Management of Catholic Hospitals 339 

positions are filled by Protestants, but simply because the Mother Supe- 
rior finds the Protestant physician more subservient to her will. Of course 
there are a few Catholic physicians attached to every Catholic hospital, 
but they are not there on any other term than by favor, and so long as 
they are not antagonistic. Certainly, their professional position was not 
considered in their appointment, half so much as the estimate put 
on the possibility of their wives and friends being able, through their 
influence, to contribute to the coffers of the institution. Personally, I 
would be the last to offer any objection to the services of Protestant 
physicians in a Catholic hospital, since my whole professional life has been 
spent among them. But from the beginning of my professional life I 
have seen the young Catholic doctors in this country with the exception 
of but a few individuals, laboring under the greatest disadvantage. 
This has resulted from the difficulty which has existed in gaining a 
practical knowledge of their profession without going abroad, and this 
extra expense few could afford. Therefore, under the circumstances, the 
Catholic hospital should have been reserved exclusively for the Catholic 
physicians, as in many of the Protestant hospitals, from one cause or an- 
other, the appointment of a Catholic never occurs. Fortunately, within 
a recent period Fordham University has established a Catholic Medical 
School, and with it will be associated a general hospital where the young 
Catholic students will be taught, by an innovation, from the beginning 
their studies at the bedside, a practical knowledge of their profession, and 
in this respect the Fordham Medical School will be unlike any other from 
the new method of teaching, the need for which I have advocated since 
I was a medical student. As in teaching a knowledge of a language, 
the only practical means is to speak it first and to teach the grammar 
afterward. 

So far from many of the hospitals being a greater benefit for the poor, 
or the chief provision in them being made for those who we are told will 
always be with us, I can only state in my experience the expectation will 
prove a farce, except with those whose vocation is to care for the penniless, 
and their vocation merits the blessing of God. 

Place a woman in charge of the sick, with no other purpose, and by 
reflected light she represents all that our Lord has associated with true 
charity. If she be a Catholic sister, so much the better, for there can then 
exist no other motive but the service of God, without distraction from the 
influence of the outdoor world. This was fully illustrated during the 
Civil War, by the devotion of these good women to the care of the wounded 
and I have yet to meet the first Jew or Gentile who was unwilling to 
acknowledge their utiHty and spiritual influence. 

Before dismissing this subject of hospital management, I must bear 



340 Incidents of my Life 

testimony to the fact that the Jewish pubHc institutions are as a rule, 
so far as I have been able to judge, better managed than those under 
either Protestant or Catholic influence, and they provide better and more 
liberally for their poor. Moreover, the physicians are treated by the 
Jewish hospital authorities with far more consideration and liberality; 
in fact, no comparison can be made. 

In connection with the late Dr. Lee's long service at the hospital, it 
will be of interest to the reader to learn something as to my first acquaint- 
ance with him and his appointment as an assistant surgeon to the 
hospital. The doctor was a great-grandson of Charles Carroll of Carroll- 
ton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Lee was 
surgeon in the U. S. Army and during the Civil War he was in active ser- 
vice from the beginning to the end. During May, 1865, he was ordered 
to New York to serve on a board for examining surgeons seeking promo- 
tion, or discharge. Having completed this duty, he decided to resign, 
settle in New York, and to become a practitioner of medicine. I made 
his acquaintance almost immediately after through an amusing mistake. 

For several years previous I had been greatly annoyed by the publi- 
cation of certain reflections, as to my service in the Woman's Hospital, in 
a second-rate medical journal of the city; but these innuendoes had 
always stopped short of being a libel or of making it necessary for me to 
notice them. At length in one issue I was charged with making my living 
and keeping up my private hospital by enticing patients from the public 
hospital, who would pay me something for extra attention. This was a 
malicious He, since I had kept the public hospital going at a great loss to 
myself, by sending cases for operation before the clinic from my private 
hospital, as I have already stated. I, therefore, at once demanded the 
name of the writer of the paragraph, which was published as an editorial, 
and the refusal to give me the information and the wording of the answer 
satisfied me that the editor had a hand in it. As I believe in short 
accounts, I sent one of my assistants to find where the editor's office was. 
I started out to settle the matter as soon as I could get away from my 
office work. As I rang the bell, I read "Charles Carroll," but the sign 
being in rather a dark place I must have mistaken the Lee for M.D., 
without looking at it closely. When the doctor entered his office to see 
me, I told him who I was and raised my arm to give him a cut across the 
shoulders with a light rattan cane I had in my hand. He so quickly 
seized my wrist and showed so much strength as he held my arm I could 
not strike him, and I at once realized I was likely to get a thrashing. In 
the coolest manner possible he said: "Young man, I do not know from 
what lunatic asylum you have escaped, but if you will listen to me a mo- 
ment I shall show you that you are about to make a fool of yourself!" 



Injustice to Members of Irish Federation 341 

He then told me who he was, and we had a hearty laugh over the incident, 
which was the beginning of a long and uninterrupted friendship, lasting 
until his death. A few weeks after, a vacancy occurred in the hospital 
and as I then had the power of appointing my assistants, I made him 
one. He, as a stranger, was grateful for the opportunity I thus gave 
him to establish himself, and I always felt myself a subject for con- 
gratulation in having secured an assistant so loyal and efficient. 

Our last action as members of the New York branch of the Irish 
National Federation was to organize the first branch of the United Irish 
League in this country. Mr. Michael Fox, now president of the Gaelic 
Society, and the corresponding secretary of the United Irish League of 
New York City was then the secretary of the City Council of the Irish 
Federation of America, and the most active in effecting this organization, 
and he will bear witness that its existence was entirely ignored afterward 
by those representing Mr. Redmond's interest. 

The course of the Irish Federation and the service of every one con- 
nected with it remained from the beginning to the end above suspicion 
and free from calumny. Every one connected with the organization 
served it free from all thought of self-interest and politics. No other 
incident of my life ever gave me greater satisfaction than my subsequent 
experience when I was able to appreciate the incalculable benefit the 
Irish cause derived in this country, as a direct result of my judgment 
in keeping open the Irish Federation to the last. The advantage de- 
rived from this circumstance seems never to have been appreciated. As 
a consequence the existence of the Federation to the last, and through its 
skeleton branches, it was rendered possible for Mr. Redmond to effect his 
organization in so short a time, when he visited the United States in 
December, 1901 ; a result which would have been impossible for his 
former supporters to have accomplished had a different course been 
followed by those connected with the Federation. 

Great injustice was done some of those connected with the Irish 
Federation as I wrote to Mr. Redmond (see Appendix, Note No. VII), for 
they were ignored, and, in fact, all of us were, in so far that none of us 
were consulted in relation to the future interests of Irish affairs in this 
country. The whole Irish interest was placed in the hands of those who 
were not the best fitted for the service and who were entirely partisan in 
their methods, and Mr. Redmond's instructions were not carried out by 
them. Nevertheless, there was no one connected with the Irish Federa- 
tion who did not put aside all personal feelings in the situation and 
exercise all his influence in Mr. Redmond's favor and to some advantage, 
as there were many who considered the appointment of Mr. Redmond as 
being ill-judged. Time has, however, proved Mr. DilHon to have been a 



342 Incidents of my Life 

master in practical politics in acting on Mr. Wm. O'Brien's suggestion, 
who, I believe, first named Mr. Redmond for the position. "All 's well 
that ends well," as no one could have filled the position so well as Mr, 
Redmond has done. 

Mr. Michael Fox, then secretary, and Mr. Patrick Gallagher, chair- 
man of the First Branch, and myself, with some of those mentioned by 
Mr. Fox in the Appendix, are now the only persons living, so far as I 
know, who were actively connected with the control of the affairs of the 
Irish National Federation at the time when it ceased to exist. No others 
in the country made greater effort than the members of the first branch 
of the United Irish League did in advancing Mr. Redmond's interest at 
that time, and those who have lived have maintained their interest to 
the present day, notwithstanding the first branch of the league was 
ignored and had to disband. 

It is not necessary, therefore, to offer further proof as to how fully 
we supported Mr. Redmond from the beginning and how much I now 
appreciate Mr. Redmond's service and friendship. Mr. Crimmins, our 
treasurer, is still living, but some years had passed since we had any 
need for his services. (See Appendix, Notes VIII and IX, giving a letter 
from Mr. Fox who makes reference to the situation and mentions some 
of the members of the League present at the last meeting; it also shows 
that the organization was fully equipped, with its office at 47 West 42d 
Street.) 



nilduQ ,[ioiudD z'tsis^l jft 
Jamma jiado^ }o SDfilq-lBiiud bozoqqiiB 




342 Incidents of 



master in riractica! politics in ar* -ion's suggestion, 

"All's well 
7:ell as Mr. 

and Mr. Patri 1 >- 

d myself, with some 

are now the only pe; 

. c-te actively connected with the control of the attairs of the 

Iri: mal Federation at the time when it ceased to exist. No others 

in tlie country made greater effort than the members of the first branch 

of the United Irish League did in advancing Mr. Redmond's interest at 

that time, and those who have Hved have maintained their interest to 

the present day, notwithstanding the first branch of the league was 

ignored and had to disband. 

r< k- v.nf rwri^'^^^ry^ therefore, to offer further proof as to how full\ 

Imond from the beginning and how much i now 

■ -.-■.-. '.nr-: frinndship. Mr. Crimmins, our 

Q<- P^<-„..' f-u I. r\ , iissed since we had any 
bt. Meters Church, Dublin , , 

Supposed burial-place of Robert Emmet 



Chapter XXV 



Spent the summer of 1903 abroad — Made an effort to locate the burial place of Robert Emmet 
— Extended excavations made in the neighborhood of the supposed site of the Emmet 
family vault in the churchyard of St. Peter's, Dublin — Reasons given for believing that 
the remains of Robert Emmet were eventually placed in the family vault and that this 
vault was afterwards destroyed, and with all the other vault covered in by a thick layer of 
concrete, and over all several feet of earth were placed — Visited Dublin in 1880 — Then 
Dr. Madden was of the opinion the burial had taken place in the Protestant parish church 
at Glasneven — On making an excavation it was proved that no one had been buried there 
— The uninscribed grave in St. Michan's churchyard, which for so many years had been 
supposed to have been Robert Emmet's grave, was also opened and it was proved the re- 
mains found there had no connection with him — Statement given as to who made these 
investigations — A mural tablet was placed in the transept of St. Peter's Church, where 
on removing the floor, the headstone was found to mark the supposed grave of Christopher 
Temple Emmet — Ireland under English Rule, etc. was issued in New York, during 
September, 1903 — Feb. 14, 1904, we celebrated our golden wedding, and received in 
church a special papal blessing — One of the first wedding presents to arrive was the likeness 
of the Holy Father, on which he had written an expression of his good wishes, and his 
special blessing for both of us, and signed "Pius X, Pope" — Account of the reception held 
to receive our friends — In the evening gave a dinner of sixty covers to all of the Emmet 
family able to attend — This was likely the last gathering of the clan, and it was a 
memorable occasion — I left the following day for Palm Beach, Florida — Views relating to 
the grip — Believe every case should be isolated and treated as any other contagious 
disease — An old negro's views in relation to ironclad vessels. 




N June, 1903, I went abroad to visit my son and 
family living in Warwick, England, and for a special 
purpose, to carry out which my son met me at 
Queenstown on the arrival of the steamer. It had 
become necessary to establish, if possible, the lo- 
cation of Robert Emmet's burial place. As this 
is a subject of the greatest interest to so many 
persons, I must detail in full what was accomplished, and this purpose 
cannot be carried out better than by giving a copy of the report which was 
prepared at the time and printed by Mr. Stephen J. Richardson in the 
Gael, with illustrations, andreprinted in the first edition of my work, Ireland 
under English Rule, which was issued immediately after. In the second 

343 



344 Incidents of my Life 

edition issued at a recent period, the report was completed by additional 
material, and from this last I will quote the report in full : 

History of the Investigations Made in Dublin to Ascertain Positively 
THE Burial Place of Robert Emmet 

At the close of the eighteenth century, the Emmet family of Dublin, 
Ireland, resided on West Stephen's Green and Lamb Lane near the comer of 
York Street. The church of that parish was St. Peter's, fronting on Aungier 
Street. According to a map used by "The Wide Street Commission," be- 
tween 1790 and 1800, the shape of the land plot of the churchyard may be 
described as an oblique truncated parallelogram. Aungier Street, on the 
east side, ran north and south. Its north boundary line formed a right angle 
and extended to St. Peter's Row, or White Friars Street on the west, which 
latter thoroughfare running from northwest to southeast shortened the length 
of the south boundary line greatly in comparison with that of the north wall 
with which it was paralleled. St. Peter's Church at the time occupied the 
middle third of the ground plot, in the form of a parallelogram, from east to 
west, with the addition of an incomplete transept extending nearly to the 
north boundary wall. Subsequent to i860 a similar addition was made to 
the south side of the church to complete the cross. At one period, along the 
outside of the south wall of the churchyard ran Church Alley, from Aungier 
to White Friars Street. This is now built over. In the southeast comer of 
the churchyard, at the angle of Aungier Street and Church Alley, extending 
back upon the church property for twenty-two feet, stood a watch or guard 
house. This bvdlding was used before the beginning of the last century and 
was removed about 1830. 

The Emmet burial place or family vault was situated in this churchyard, 
but no map is known to be in existence by which the exact spot can be ascer- 
tained. The only indication is given by Dr. Richard R. Madden in his work, 
The Lives of the United Irishmen, in the second edition of which, published 
just previous to i860, he records the death and burial of Dr. Robert 
Emmet as follows: "Dr. Emmet died at Casino, near Milltown (outside of 
Dublin) in the autumn of 1802. He was buried in the graveyard of St. 
Peter's Church in Aungier Street, on the right-hand side of the entrance, close 
to the wall on the south side. " 

He also states that the tomb or vault had the following inscription : 

"Here lies the remains of 

Robert Emmet, Esq., M.D., 

who died the 9th of December, 1802 

in the 73rd year of his Age. " 

Mr. Fitzpatrick, in his Sham Squire, is the only other authority on the 
location of this burial place. He simply states that it was situated in the 
southeast comer of the churchyard. 



Robert Emmet's Burial Place 345 

In 1880 the writer failed not only to find this tomb but any other in 
St. Peter's churchyard. He found on inquiry that all the tombstones 
had been removed some years before, but were yet preserved, and that 
several feet of earth had been spread upon the surface of the ground to 
raise it to the level of the street in front. The tombstones, after removal 
and after the filling in of the yard, had been placed in piles along the west 
boundary wall. These were carefully examined at the time of the writer's 
visit, but no trace of any bearing the name of Emmet was found. As the 
inscribed stone found by Dr. Madden, marking the Emmet vault or 
tomb, was a flat one, lying horizontally over the entrance, it was inferred 
by the writer that this was not removed with the others but was merely 
covered over when the ground was filled in to the level of Aungier 
Street and back to White Friars Street. 

The tombstones examined in 1880 are now secured upright against 
the walls of the church and yard, and one of them is laid in the floor of the 
recently built portion of the transept on the south side as though to mark 
the vault or grave covered by that portion of the church; but in the 
absence of any map or plan among the church records which might have 
been used as a guide to the removal and placing of the tombstones in 
their subsequent position, we must infer that the latter was decided at 
haphazard and with complete indifference as to the rights of the living 
and the dead. 

On the approach of the centenary of the death of Robert Emmet, the 
writer was urged, through letters received from widely separated parts 
of the world, to initiate, as a representative of the Emmet family, an 
effort to discover the place of his ancestor's burial. Before placing on 
record what has been accomplished in furtherance of this object, it is 
necessary to place before the reader, in detail, some circumstantial 
evidence which has for a longer or shorter period been known and more or 
less accepted by the present generation of the family in regard to the 
manner and place of burial of Robert Emmet. Everything relating to the 
life and death of his grand-uncle possessed, for the writer, intense in- 
terest, from his earliest childhood and throughout a period when he was 
in full and frequent communication with his father, his grandmother, 
his uncles and aunts who had known personally their kinsman, Robert 
Emmet, and who must have been familiar with all the circumstances of 
his death and burial. Although the writer cannot recall ever hearing the 
subject of Robert Emmet's burial discussed by any contemporary member 
of the family, the impression received at that period, and long maintained 
by him, was that his ancestor had been buried in an uninscribed grave, as 
was his well-known wish. No doubt was ever cast, so far as the writer 
knows, upon this assumption until all those who had knowledge of the 



346 Incidents of my Life 

subject had passed away. The existence of the family burial place in 
St. Peter's churchyard was known to every member of the family before 
the publication of Mr. Madden's work, and it was equally well known that 
several of the younger children, as well as Christopher Temple Emmet, 
the eldest son, were interred there before the death of their father, 
Dr. Robert Emmet ; that the body of the mother of Robert was placed 
there but a few days before his execution, and that his sister, Mrs. Robert 
Holmes, dying a year later, was also buried with her parents. It must 
also have been known later to the children of Thomas Addis Emmet 
that at the time of their uncle's execution every male member of his 
family, near relative or connection, was dead, in exile, or imprisoned, so 
that in consequence of this and the disturbed state of Ireland, it was 
impossible to place his body then in the family vault. But after the re- 
lease from prison of Robert Emmet's brother-in-law, Mr. Robert Holmes, 
and of Mr. John Patten, the brother of Thomas Addis Emmet's wife, it 
must have been learned from the Rev. Thomas Gamble, a connection 
of the family and assistant curate of St. Michan's Church, of his disposi- 
tion of the body of Robert Emmet after he had removed it from the gate- 
house of Potter's Field, Dublin, on the night of the execution. It cannot 
be supposed that these two gentlemen, who were men of great prominence 
and living for over fifty years in Dublin after that event, remained igno- 
rant of the disposition of their relative's body, nor is it possible that, had 
there been any doubt in the minds of his relatives in New York, that 
Robert Emmet's body had not been finally placed at rest with his father 
and mother, the fact would not have been discussed ; for, even before the 
death of Thomas Addis Emmet, no reason for secrecy any longer existed. 
All the facts must have been known to at least ten members of the family, 
the last of whom did not die until the writer had passed middle age. 

No one now living knows when the body of Robert Emmet was re- 
moved from the receiving vault of St. Michan's Church, where it is 
believed to have been placed by Mr. Gamble. But it is known that 
Robert's sister, Mrs. Holmes, was interred in the family vault in St. Peter's 
about a year after her brother's execution, and for some imexplained 
reason this interment took place at a late hour in the night. Why could 
it not have taken place, as was the usual custom, publicly and in day- 
light? Is it not a natural inference, in the absence of any other known 
reason or plausible theory, for so unusual a procedure, that the same hour 
and place were chosen for the removal also of her brother's body and for 
its final interment in the family tomb? The lateness of the hour and the 
darkness, combined with the necessary opening of the vault, would have 
made the transference of Robert Emmet's body and its burial feasible 
with secrecy and the avoidance of public disturbance. 



Robert Emmet's Burial Place 347 

It was only at the time of the writer's last visit to his old friend Dr. 
Madden, in Dublin, in the summer of 1880, that he was impressed with 
the possibility that Robert Emmet's body lay in the Protestant cemetery 
of Glasneven. He yielded to Dr. Madden's opinion in this because of the 
latter's thorough and extended study and investigation of the subject. 
Elsewhere nhis visit and Dr. Madden's opinions and information on the 
subject have been given in full. Since Dr. Madden's death the writer 
has realized the fact from many circumstances not plain at that time 
that the former had, even at the time of his visit, reached an extreme 
old age when, as he has since learned, his mental faculties had become 
greatly impaired. At that time he gave the writer several letters which 
proved that he had forgotten other circumstances and had wandered 
away from facts which in earlier life he had accepted as proven. One 
of these letters in question, written many years before, was from the 
Rev. Patrick Carroll, rector of the Protestant parish church of Glas- 
neven, in answer to an inquiry of Dr. Madden. Dr. Carroll, in this 
letter, stated that in his efforts to clear up the churchyard, on taking over 
the parish, he had set upright a number of headstones which had fallen 
and encumbered the walks and that he recollected personally placing the 
stone, which is now popularly supposed to cover the grave of Robert 
Emmet, in its present position in order to get it out of the way; that he 
had had it removed from some distance, and from the other side of the 
churchyard. Dr. Carroll's statement may be taken for what it is worth. 

In St. Michan's churchyard, on the left side going from the church 
down the central pathway, there is an uninscribed, flat tombstone which 
has for many years been regarded as covering Robert Emmet's grave. 
For some years past this grave had been cared for and protected from 
desecration by Mr. J. F. Fuller of Dublin, who is a distant connection of 
the family of Robert's Emmet's mother, the Masons of Kerry. 

At the beginning of the investigations about to be described no one 
doubted that full proof would be found in one of the three situations 
designated as the actual place of Robert Emmet's burial. 

Chiefly upon the representation of Francis J. Briggar, Esq., of Belfast, 
and the recently published work of David A. Quaid, Esq., on Robert 
Emmet, the writer took the first steps in these investigations. These 
gentlemen kindly undertook to obtain the necessary permits, and partic- 
ularly through the efforts of Mr. Quaid, who was a solicitor of Dublin, all 
arrangements were perfected by July 4, 1903. At an early hour on 
Monday, July 6, 1903, in the presence of Messrs. Briggar, Quaid, Fuller, 
the Rev. Stanford F. H. Robinson, assistant curate, Robert Emmet, a 
son of the writer, and the writer himself, a wide trench was dug toward 

' The Emmet Family, etc. 



348 Incidents of my Life 



the west along the south wall of St. Peter's churchyard. This excavation 
was extended from the foundation of the old guard-house for twenty-eight 
feet beyond the supposed site of the Emmet vault on the southeast part 
of the yard. In this distance a vault was uncovered eight feet long by 
eight and a half feet wide, with the tops of two brick graves, which were 
unopened. As far as the excavation extended, along the south wall of 
the enclosure and in line with the east wall of the new portion of the 
transept and almost to the south wall of the church, a concrete surface 
was exposed about eight inches in thickness. This seemed to have been 
spread over the original surface of the yard, after the headstones and 
footstones had been removed, and upon it the earth had been filled in, 
increasing in depth toward the west. The top of the vault found was 
ten feet west of the foundation of the guard-house, projected above the 
concrete, and was near the present surface of the ground. This vault, 
which occupied the supposed situation of the Emmet vault, was opened at 
both ends after the removal of the concrete and earth which covered the 
remains of a flight of stone steps. The vatilt contained four coffins in a 
fair state of preservation. On two of these were coffin plates bearing 
different names, and, from the dates inscribed, it is probable that they 
were the last buried before the prohibitive law went into operation. It 
was probably the receiving vault of the church. Nothing in connection 
with the Emmet family was found throughout a careful search of five 
days, dtiring which an excavation was also made along the south wall of 
the church to the right of the entrance on that side. At different points 
openings were made in the concrete surface and the ground in every di- 
rection probed and sounded by means of an iron crowbar to the depth of 
several feet. It was demonstrated by these means that the single vault 
found was the only one existing in that portion of the churchyard. In no 
instance were the remains of any grave disturbed or even approached 
with the crowbar within four or five feet. Throughout these operations 
one or more of the gentlemen mentioned above was always present to 
superintend the work. 

So far nothing had been discovered to show that Robert Emmet was 
not finally buried in the family vault in this churchyard, but if Dr. 
Madden's description of the locality of the vault, in its relation to the 
present entrance of the church is correct and if Mr. Fitzpatrick's statement 
is true that it was located in the southeast comer of the churchyard, or 
more properly in that relation to the guard-house, which formerly occupied 
that situation, the fact is now clearly established that the Emmet vault 
and others, if they existed in that neighborhood, have at some later 
period, been demolished and filled in. The only other hypothesis is that 
both Dr. Madden and Mr. Fitzpatrick M^ere wrong in regard to the locality 



^f'- 
•&*«. 



}9mm3 tisdo^ 
faioliammoD yd baJnisq 9iul&'inim & moi'^ 
IfihJ arfj §nnub hsjIbJ rfoJsile (iDnaq b moi'i 



348 Incidents 

the west along the south v 

fe< 



cavation 



emed to ]\a~ 

■' ^^'^^ ^' '-'i LiiL yard, lifter the headstones ai c 

. s had been md upon it the earth had been filled :n 

casing in depth t.nvarci the west. The top of the vault found ^^ .. 

•n feet west of the foundation of the guard-house, projected above the 

•ar the present surface of the ground. This vault, 

ipposed situatinn of the Emmet vault, was opened at 

Robert Emmet ^ 

From a miniature painted by Commerford ^ 

From a pencil sketch taken during the trial 



.ranee on that side. 
rete surface and the g. 
'oy means of an iron crowbar to the depth of 
istrated by these means that the single vault 
the only one existing in tliat portion of the churchyard. In no 
ace were the remains of any grave disturbed or even approached 
the crowbar within four or five feet. Throughout these operations 
■ more of the gentlemen mentioned above was always present to 
' ' ' work. 

■e had beer] ; r.o ^hov,- thnt Robprt F.mmet iva<= 

imiiy vault in 
^■ locality of thf 

r and if Mr. Fitzp 

■uast comer of thi^ .'i^, .,.,...,., .,r 
ase, which formerly occupied 

■■■•"' t-'i. i ■ . IX they exisiec.; 

j.enod, u>-:vv demolished and i. : ^ ,., ^^ ^v^^^ 

both Dr. Madden and Mr. Fitzpat: rd' to the locality 



w, 



Making Investigations 349 



they both ascribed to it. What disposition was made of the large, flat, 
inscribed stone which marked its site and covered the opening to the 
vault in Madden's time? If it had been left in situ and the top of the 
vault covered over, this stone would have been found above the concrete ; 
if it had been left on the surface of the ground it would have been found 
beneath the concrete by the use of the iron crowbar. 

We must therefore either assume that the vault was deliberately de- 
stroyed or its contents were removed and deposited elsewhere. In this 
connection, the fact is noteworthy that the covering stone of the vault 
is not to be found among the hundreds of others already referred to, 
which are carefully preserved even to the pieces which in many cases had 
been broken off. 

The church has a large entrance at the back or west side, which, 
according to the recent testimony of a number of persons did not exist in 
the old church. Before the present church was altered. White Friars 
Street, on the west side, was much above the level of the churchyard. 
Therefore, the present main entrance to the church would have been very 
awkwardly placed, and, if it existed, could only have been reached by 
a series of steps. It is an interesting circumstance, that, if we assume 
that Dr. Madden had reference in his description to an entrance then 
existing on the west side, it is in reality the only spot where the locality 
would be termed "along the south wall" of both the enclosure and of the 
church. At the same time, it would also be to the right both of an 
entrance from the street and to the church. Therefore, it was still 
possible that the Emmet vault was located in the southwest portion of the 
enclosure, along the south wall of the churchyard and also of the church. 

At this point in the investigation, further search in St. Peter's church- 
yard was suspended until the necessary permission to extend the ex- 
cavation along the whole south wall of both the church and enclosure 
could be obtained from the authorities. The extreme degree of courtesy 
already shown by the church authorities throughout the investigation 
makes the hope a plausible one that this will be granted. 

In the meanwhile, to save time and avoid possible future delay, 
the uninscribed grave in St. Michan's churchyard, already referred to, 
was opened August ist, in the presence of Messrs. Quaid, Fuller, Sir 
Lambert H. Ormsby, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, 
of 92 Merrion Square, DubHn, and Alexander Frazer, Professor of 
Anatomy, of i8 Northbrook Street, Dublin. 

In this grave the remains of two bodies were found. First, that of a 
girl of about thirteen years ; below, at the depth of six feet, that of a man 
which, after a careful examination of his skull and jaw-bones had been 
made by the siu-geons present, was pronounced by them to have been at 



350 Incidents of my Life 



least seventy years of age at the time of his death. The cervical vertebrae 
also were perfect, a crucial test in regard to the body of Robert Emmet, 
and the length and size of the thigh-bone proved him to have been 
a very tall and powerful man. Robert Emmet was neither. After a 
thorough examination the bones v/ere replaced and the grave filled in. 

This discovery proves, beyond peradventure, that Robert Emmet 
was not buried in this grave which has so long a time been popularly 
ascribed to him. 

A thorough investigation was subsequently made by Messrs. Quaid 
and Fuller of every other portion of St. Peter's churchyard as well as that 
covered by the transept, and which was being refloored at the time, but 
without being able to locate the family vault. But under the transept 
a headstone was found which had marked the grave of Christopher 
Temple Emmet, Robert Emmet's elder brother, and who was in all 
probability buried in close proximity to his father's vault. Until this 
stone was found it was supposed that Temple Emmet's remains, in accord 
with tradition, were deposited in the family vault. As nothing was found 
but this headstone, and on which was also inscribed the name of an 
elder sister, it is possible that the remains of both may have been dis- 
interred and placed in the father's vault when it was subsequently built, 
and the headstone was likely buried where it was found, on filling in the 
empty grave. 

It was thought advisable to mark the locality where this gravestone 
of Christopher Temple Emmet was found. In accordance with this 
determination the gravestone was let into the wall on the west side of the 
transept, and above it was placed a large brass mural tablet with the 
inscription : 

This wall stands over the supposed site of the 
Emmet Family vault which was apparently removed 
to make room for the foundations of the new transept. 
Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., of New York, and 
other members of the family have had this brass 
placed here A.D. 1908. 

To obtain permission from the vestry of the church to place this 
memorial, it was necessary to substitute removed for the term destroyed. 
A Dublin paper states: 

The present representative of the family, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet of 
New York, and his sons, have borne the cost of the memorial. The armorial 
bearings are beautifully done in correct heraldic colors, and at the four comers 
of the brass are the emblems of the four Evangelists. The lettering is raised 



Golden Wedding Celebration 351 

and on a dark background instead of being simply incised. The ornamental 
margin is done in Celtic ornaments brought on in color. 

The family vault had evidently been destroyed, filled in, and covered 
over with cement so that its locality could never be identified. 

The supposed grave of Robert Emmet in the Protestant churchyard 
at Glasneven was also investigated by David A. Quaid, Esq., but nothing 
was found to the depth of eight feet, thus corroborating the statement 
made by the Rev. Dr. Carroll that the headstone did not mark a grave, but 
had been placed there by him to get rid of it. 

In September, 1903, my work, Ireland under English Rule, or a Plea 
for the Plaintiff was issued in two volumes, after an incredible amount 
of labor. As I decided to use no quotation unless I could first compare it 
with the original, I was very much restricted in the amount of material I 
could make available. I was surprised to find out how few quotations 
given by reliable writers could be depended upon for accuracy. The 
work had a fair sale, but chiefly among those who were not of Irish blood. 
It served, however, a good purpose to advance the cause of Home Rule 
by directing to some extent the formation of public opinion, by the in- 
formation imparted as to the true condition of Ireland. It was dedicated 
as follows: 

This work is dedicated to the Sons and Daughters of Ireland scattered over 
the earth in quest of a home denied them in their native land. 

Since its publication I have written various papers and addresses 
relating to American and Irish historical subjects, of which I have little 
or no record. During this period as I have grown less able to go abroad 
and to attend the public meetings relating to Irish affairs, I have watched 
closely the public press and have made myself useful to the cause, from 
time to time, by writing an occasional editorial for some newspaper, which 
has generally been accepted, and I have written a number of letters, 
sometimes anonymously, for the press with the object of directing public 
opinion as to Irish matters. 

My wife, in the autumn of 1903, suffered from an attack of grip, 
contracted from a female friend who thoughtlessly kissed her while the 
disease was being developed. In a few days I also contracted it, and on 
convalescing I noticed for the first time that my hearing was impaired. 
Mrs. Emmet made aiair recovery but did not regain her strength fully. 

We celebrated our golden wedding on February 14, 1904, after 
having passed the fifty years in unusual good health, as a rule, while I had 
prospered and with every reason to thank God for the many blessings 
He had bestowed on us. 



352 Incidents of my Life 

Application was made to obtain a papal blessing for the occasion, but 
the Holy Father sent a special one. I arranged to obtain it quietly after 
we had received communion at an early mass, but it got noised about 
among the congregation, and when we arrived we found the church 
packed from door to door by those who had known of us since their child- 
hood. From the interest my wife had always taken in every fair and 
undertaking in connection with the church for nearly fifty years, she 
was generally known as the " Mother of St. Stephen's." I had for many 
years been the oldest pew-holder in the chiirch, having rented a pew 
shortly after the church was built, and had long been one of the trustees. 
So that we had been svifficiently connected with the church to bring 
together probably fifteen hundred members of the congregation, and 
from the expression of many kindly faces we saw, I believe we had the 
good wishes of all present. Our dear friend, Father Colton, who had 
been so many years in charge of St. Stephen's Church, had a short time 
before been made the Bishop of Buffalo, and he kindly came to New York 
to officiate. After mass had been finished, we walked up within the 
sanctuary rail and knelt in front of the High Altar, where we received 
the papal blessing from the Bishop and his own congratulations. 

On reaching home, the first thing I received, of the many presents sent 
us, was one from Rome. The Holy Father had sent us his photograph 
on which he had written in Latin : 

To our beloved children, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet, who are 
about to commemorate the fiftieth year of their married life, we affection- 
ately impart the Apostolic Benediction, while praying the Lord to grant them 
the enjoyment of all prosperity and happiness for many years. 

Pius X, Pope. 

To the kind interest and personal effort of an old friend, the most 
Reverend Dr. Farley, Archbishop of New York, we were indebted for 
the issuing of the Apostolic Benediction and his own blessing. 

The following is a portion of the account published in the New York 
Herald and evidently written by some lady who had been present : 

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet commemorated the fiftieth anniversary 
of their wedding by giving a large reception yesterday afternoon at their 
residence. No. 89 Madison Avenue. The reception which was attended by 
several hundred was a most delightful affair of the numerous members of the 
Emmet family and the friends of Dr. and Mrs. Emmet, who have long been 
identified with fashionable life in New York. 

Elaborate decorations throughout the house consisted of yellow roses, 
jonquils, and other spring flowers. Dr. and Mrs. Emmet, who received alone 



Account of Reception 353 

in the main drawing-room, stood under a large marriage bell made entirely 
of yellow jonquils. 

Mrs. Emmet was attired in a gown of rich black velvet with trimmings of 
exquisite point lace. Her ornametits were diamonds and pearls and she also 
wore a lorgnette of gold, one side embellished with her initials in diamonds 
and the other with a representation of the thistle, an emblem of her ancestors, 
set in emeralds, diamonds, and an amethyst. This ornament was a present 
from Dr. and Mrs. John Duncan Emmet, whose wedding was celebrated in 
the Cathedral last week. 

The lorgnette was worn with a gold chain set with precious stones, a gift 
from Dr. J. Duncan Emmet, whose present to his father was a gold wedding 
medal, cast in France, a facsimile of the silver medal given to him by the Rev. 
Wm. J. B. Daly, who officiated at his wedding. 

The baskets of flowers sent were banked against the walls of the parlors 
on the sides of stands forty feet in length, and from the ceiling to the floor, 
and arranged as to color to give a most artistic and unique effect. 

I believe few young people ever had at their start in life a greater 
number of testimonials of regard, or congratulations from so large a 
number of individuals, than we received at the near close of our journey 
in life. Frequently after death it is possible to form some idea as to the 
number attached to the deceased, but it is of rare occurrence that the 
living are ever gratified with this knowledge. A host of friends appeared 
at the reception to offer their congratulations, and many who did so had 
passed out of our memory, but they had maintained a kind remembrance 
of us. And for days after the accounts of the golden wedding were 
published we were in receipt of letters of congratulation from friends 
throughout the country. 

Immediately after the reception everything in the parlor and dining- 
room but the pictures on the walls was removed from the house and 
stored for the night. In a clear running space of sixty-five feet a table 
was laid with over sixty covers and to dinner I had a grand gathering of 
the clan, including all but several invalids and some young children. We 
had a jolly good time all to ourselves. About eleven o'clock, after all 
had done their best and could do no more, we rose as a committee of the 
whole and went into regular session to one side, while the remains of the 
dinner were removed and everything connected with the feast but our- 
selves gathered up and out of the house in half an hour. 

We then formed a grand Virginia reel with my wife and myself at 
the head, and we made a praiseworthy effort to keep up our end, and 
had we been younger, we would have asked no odds. We finished our 
figure in a very creditable manner, and then dropped out, glad of 
the rest, for the younger people gave us a good shaking up, prompted 



354 Incidents of my Life 

probably by the feeling that it would be the last opportunity they 
would ever have. 

At a late hour, a memorable day in the history of the family was 
brought to a close, and one like it is never to occur again. After my death 
there will be no one living of the name who knew the old people connecting 
us with Ireland. 

An effort was made to pay their respects to me and no influence is 
likely ever to get all of the name together again. With different interests 
and widely scattered, the greater part of the family must soon become 
strangers to each other. I have known every member of the name con- 
nected with Ireland who came to this country, with the exception of my 
grandfather, and an uncle in the navy, who died shortly before my birth. 
I now stand like some old tree of the primitive forest, storm-scored and 
bent, like "the smouldering pine standing as a shattered trunk," a land- 
mark, but when the end comes, my place will remain vacant. 

On the following day, we closed the house and my wife and I set out for 
Florida to spend the remainder of the winter, as we needed- a long rest. 
We both had suffered from an attack of the grip, every winter for several 
years past, and this disease had left its mark in lowering our vitahty with 
more rapidity than the advance of age. Of all diseases I fear the effects 
of the grip more than any other. I would rather have an epidemic of 
cholera or small-pox or both together, than one of grip. Neither of these 
diseases has ever produced so many deaths or so much bad health as a 
consequence. The disease is even more contagious than either cholera or 
small-pox, and yet without even the restraint that common-sense would 
suggest, when the sufferers should remain at home for their own benefit 
tmtil convalescent. For several days the disease is being spread before 
the sufferer is likely to go to bed, when the probabilities are many must 
suffer from pneumonia or some other complication which could have been 
avoided. The time must come when the law will compel the reporting of 
every case of grip to the Health Board as is done with other contagious 
diseases, and then, with the proper care from the beginning and in con- 
fining the patient to bed, much of the bad effects of the disease will be 
guarded against. It is the most insidious of all diseases, from the fact 
that the beginning is generally so mild in character that the necessary 
care is not taken until too late. 

There exists in medical literature an account of some one hundred 
and twenty epidemics of this disease during the past thousand years or 
more, as a form of the so-called plague, as it varies so often in type and 
consequences. This disease has been endemic, or peculiar to the country, 
in all the old eastern cities with nothing but surface drainage from as 
remote a period as we have any medical record. Like the cholera it 



A Negro's View of Ironclads 355 

would seem in time to gain strength and as a stream overflowing its banks 
it would, about every twenty-five or thirty years, spread over the world 
as an epidemic until it had expended its force, and then disappear for 
years. For about twenty years it has never disappeared and it is now 
likely to become one of the diseases of this country and probably cholera 
will likewise remain with us. Unless the powers of the Christian world 
join together for their own protection, stop all pilgrimages to Mecca> 
and enforce the observance of proper sanitary measures in the East, this 
result seems inevitable with more fatal consequences from delay. " 

The mild climate of the South has probably prolonged my life, since 
I can no longer remain North after the first of January. For one whose 
tastes and chief interest in life have become at last narrowed down to the 
limit of his library, it is hard to be in exile about six months of every year 
and away from home. It is not unpleasant moving about, seeing new 
people and getting fresh ideas, but I have the desire to do certain literary 
work which I can only do at home, within reach of the needed books of 
reference, and at my age it is easy to realize that I have not a very great 
length of time before me to accomplish what I wish. 

In Florida the hotels begin to close early in April and too soon to 
return home without the risk of contracting a severe cold, a consequence 
I naturally wish to avoid. After a short stop at St. Augustine on my 
way North, I have generally remained for a while at Old Point Comfort, 
Virginia. 

Before my hearing had become impaired, it was my delight when 
travelling to drift about among the people, as I often thus obtained much 
subject for thought and entertainment. On one occasion, while standing 
near the end of the dock at Old Point, I overheard the following con- 
versation between two old negroes, one evidently being from the country 
on a visit to his city friend: "Look here, dey tell me dat ship out dar" 
[the Texas] "is made of iron." The rejoinder was given: "Uncle Sam 
now makes all his ships of iron." After a moment's reflection, it was said : 
"Aha! I tell you now I don't want nothing to do with no boat made of 
iron. You take a skillet and knock a hole in it and put it in dat ar water, 
ain't it gwine to the bottom, sure? Now I tell you when you is on dis 
here land dar' you is, but when you is on one of dem things, whar is you? " 
Rather a sagacious commentary on the ironclads, from the old negro's 
standpoint ! 



Chapter XXVI 



The condition of my wife did not improve at Palm Beach, nor did I do better — We both 
suffered from an attack of the grip on our return home, and were confined for over a 
month — One morning I read to her from the newspaper an accovmt of a dinner given the 
night before to Dr. Osier, to which I had not been invited, nor did I know it was to be 
given — I cited the incident to my wife as a proof of how completely I was "out of the 
swim," and forgotten — Next morning I was notified by a committee of one that a diimer 
was to be given to me on my seventy-seventh birthday, just a week off — It seemed some- 
thing impossible that I could be present at a dinner in a week — But my wife appreciated 
the honor more than I did at the time, and that I had given up for the want of some 
regular occupation — With her interest and assistance I made an effort, got to work at 
once preparing an address — Each day of effort gave me a new lease of life — In a week 
I attended the dinner, which proved one of the chief events of my life — Without the new 
interest this diimer gave me in life, I would, in a few months, have ceased to exist from pure 
inanition, as I thought my life's work was done, and I was simply waiting for the end — 
Went to diimer and never enjoyed one more, — in the meeting of so many old friends and 
many new ones, whom I had thought were indifferent, while I was in practice, to me and 
my work — Began the making of a scrap-book by collecting everything relating to the 
dinner, and selected over one hundred quotations from Shakespeare — My wife took the 
greatest interest in my work and particularly in the quotations, as she knew nearly every 
one present, and was greatly amused at the application of the quotations — I was urged 
to publish the book and issue a copy as a souvenir for every one who was present — My 
wife's sudden death. 




■jHILE at Palm Beach in the spring of 1904 I noticed 
with apprehension that my wife did not regain 
her strength as I had hoped would be the case. 

I simply vegetated during the autumn and 
winter of 1904-05, slowly failing in health, and 
from want of strength, together with trouble from 
my old broken leg, I became confined to the house. 
Week after week passed and I saw no one but my immediate family. It 
seemed as if my life's work being finished I could render no further 
service, and I was forgotten. My wife did not gain, and as we passed 
the winter in close companionship, her condition was a constant menace 
in my apprehension for her future. In the spring, from a visitor who 
was ill at the time, my wife contracted another attack of grip, and as 

356 



Complimentary Dinner on my Birthday 357 

always happened, I in turn became a victim. For weeks we lay in 
adjoining beds with a nurse looking after us. My wife's troubles in- 
creased as I slowly was convalescing. One morning, while still in bed, 
I was reading the paper, and turning to my wife, said: "The profession 
gave Dr. Osier a large dinner last night. There is no man in the pro- 
fession whom I would wish more to honor, and yet I was not even 
invited. But a short time ago I would probably have been one of the 
first to be consulted in giving him the dinner. Could any better evidence 
be shown as to how completely I am 'out of the swim' and forgotten?" 

The following morning, one of "my boys," Dr. George H. Mallett, 
formerly an assistant at the Woman's Hospital, called to see me, my 
first visitor in six weeks. I was very glad to see the doctor, for in addi- 
tion to having been formerly an assistant, I had for some time past 
kept a warm spot in my heart for him. He was the physician who accom- 
panied my son to Bermuda when I was expected to die there, and I have 
kept in grateful remembrance his care of me. He soon told me that he 
had just attended a medical meeting held at Niagara Falls, and it had 
so happened that a number who had been delegates to several other 
meetings held in different parts of the country had met at the Falls. 
As if by inspiration the spirit had moved these gentlemen to agree that 
I was well deserving of a public dinner as an acknowledgment of my 
professional work, and their personal esteem. As a number had been 
several weeks absent from their business it was decided that the dinner 
had to be given that day week, on May 29, 1905, my seventy-seventh 
birthday, and Dr. Mallett had called to notify me. 

To me, in bed and feeling unable to stand without difficulty, the 
whole affair seemed a hopeless undertaking, at least so far as it rested 
with me, and in despair I said: "Why can you not let me die in peace?" 
As I was told that all the arrangements had been made with Delmonico, 
and already considerable advance had been made by the aid of a number 
of willing workers with Dr. Henry C. Coe at the head, I felt that the 
play could not go on without Hamlet. During the half hour we talked 
the matter over, my wife did much to get me on my feet, as she appre- 
ciated the honor more than I did at the time, I got up immediately 
and was seized with some of my energy of old, and set to work to prepare 
an address. I telephoned to several friends for advice as to what the 
subject should be, and by a ciuious coincidence, the reply from all was 
to prepare some account of my life. This I set about doing and the 
setting of my brain to work again gave me increased strength, hour by 
hour, as I got the more interested in my work. After six days' work 
before the dinner I had gained a new lease of life and at the dinner I 
was quite as well in bodily strength as I had been for several years in the 



358 Incidents of my Life 

past. I had supposed that the dinner was to be given by my personal 
friends, and chiefly by the young men who had been under me at the 
Woman's Hospital. As I had labored with them assiduously to give 
them every advantage, I had not appreciated the compliment inthe 
giving of the dinner by them. I was, of coiirse, pleased, but if I gave the 
incentive any special thought, it was in feeling it was natural to do so 
as some return for my work. The day before the dinner, Dr. Mallett 
brought me a list of the speakers, and names of many who were to be 
present at the dinner, and my first exclamation was: 

"Why, there are men here who have been underrating my work 
for years; are they here to put the last polish on?" 

Shortly after the dinner began. His Grace, Archbishop Farley, who 
was on my right hand, remarked: "What a remarkably bright looking 
set of men!" They were all in active life, yet with the exception of 
my old friend. Dr. Abraham Jacobi, whom I had known since 1853, 
I did not see an individual who had known me personally previous to 
the end of the Civil War. Although I am only about two years his senior, 
he seems yet to be as active physically as in middle life, while mentally 
there has been no change, I have out-lived all who were in practice 
when I first came to New York, so far as I know to the contrary. Miss 
Emily Blackwell was for a time in 1847 with Smith and Allen, the quiz 
masters in Philadelphia, with whom I was studying. She settled in 
New York a year before me. I often met her in practice and she was a 
remarkably good practitioner. She has but recently died — passed her 
ninetieth year. Stephen Smith, my senior, is still alive, but was an 
interne at Bellevue Hospital after I began practice, and Ellsworth 
Eliot, who is also living, was an interne about two years later. 

A natural degree of modesty would forbid any attempt on my part 
to give an account of what was said in relation to me. But for an acci- 
dent the public would have remained in ignorance. The committee had 
engaged a first-class stenographer to report the proceedings, but as there 
was a long interval before the speaking began, a bottle of champagne 
was given him to kill time. When the speaking did begin, he could not 
be found, for he had drank the champagne, and as the proceedings 
interested him no more, he had cleared out. Fortunately, one of the 
physicians present took some notes for a medical journal. As these 
notes were only good so far as they reported and much was omitted which 
I had heard, I made an urgent personal request of each speaker to write 
out for me what each could recall having said. I then contemplated 
getting up a memorial manuscript volume with portraits and other 
illustrations, to be preserved for my grandchildren. While these 
gentlemen did me more than full justice, not one did justice to himself. 



Toasts and Speakers 359 

I have regretted exceedingly that a full report had not been preserved, 
for each speech was good, and taken as a whole they were the best 
after-dinner speeches I ever heard delivered on any one occasion, and I 
heard several of the invited guests express the same opinion during the 
evening. 

I amused myself in picking out over one hundred apt quotations 
from Shakespeare, which I distributed through the volume I prepared, 
and used them as headlines and at the beginning of each section, and 
a number had a personal reference to some peculiarity of the individual. 

After the dinner all my friends who saw the manuscript volume I 
had prepared urged that it should be printed. This I had done and 
presented a copy to each person connected with the dinner, and a few 
copies were placed in different libraries. 

The toasts and speakers were as follows : 

TOASTS 

Introduction Dr. E. C. Dudley, of Chicago. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Surgeon " Dr. W. M. Polk, of New York. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Teacher " Dr. W. H. Baker, of Boston. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Medical Author ". . . . Dr. S. C. Gordon, of Portland, Me. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Litterateur " Most Rev. Archbishop Farley. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Friend " Dr. Geo. T. Harrison, of New York. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Patriot " Dr. F. J. Quinlan, of New York. 

The Divine blessing was invoked by 
His Grace, the Most Reverend John M. Farley, 

Archbishop of New York. 

Introduction by Dr. Dudley 

Dr. Emmet and Gentlemen : 

One should always be able to make an accurate differentiate diagnosis 
between his own property and the property of another. I therefore congratu- 
late Dr. Emmet on his judicious choice of a birthday, since the 29th of May 
was also the date of my entrance upon this mundane sphere. Now, the ques- 
tion is, whose birthday is it? Nor do I know to whom this gavel belongs 
which I hold in my hand, but I am going to carry it home, ornament it with 
a silver tablet upon which shall be inscribed the name of Emmet, and then 
I am going to hand it down to my children, and my children's children. When 
your facetious Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements asked me to 
introduce the speakers at this dinner, he remarked that fashions travel west 
and that jokes travel east. The question before you then is, whether in 
thus referring to my journey east he has in mind myself or my baggage! 

There have been times in American gyncecology when we have heard 
nothing but the name of Emmet, and the annual meeting of the American 



36o Incidents of my Life 

Gynascological Society, just held at Niagara Falls, would suggest the fact 
that these times have not altogether passed. 

It might therefore not be inappropriate in speaking here of Dr. Emmet, 
to repeat much of what was said at that meeting, and you know there would 
be precedent for this, for the Macedonians of old always discussed important 
subjects twice — once for reflection, when they were sober, and once for 
enthusiasm when they were drunk. 

I had thought of addressing you in the original Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; 
but, then, you are not familiar with these languages, and His Grace, the 
Archbishop, on my right, is familiar — two prohibitory reasons. 

If one were to speak of Emmet as a man and were to measure him on the 
criterion of greatness, modesty, philanthropy, civic virtue, morality, mental 
integrity, and good deeds; if by such a rule we were to measure him, he wovdd 
stand up against the whole length of it. However, it would not be difficult 
to find numerous reasons why Dr. Emmet is such a man; he does not come of 
common stock but of preferred stock, for his father, his grandfather, and his 
more remote antecedents were men of gentle blood and men of intellect. 

Seventy-seven years ago to-night our nourishing mother earth stood by 
the cradle of an infant, and thus she spake: "Waken, my man child, and take 
from me, thy first mother, my gifts. Thou of all weather and out of doors, 
I give thee will and might and love of the undefiled. I give thee strength 
of my forests, my rivers, and my seas, my sunshine, my starshine, and of my 
heart. I cleanse thee. The slime of the long years shall drop from thee. 
I start thee afresh, newborn. At night in my star-hung tent, the gods shall 
visit thee. In the day thou shalt walk in a way to become as a god thyself. 
I give thee scorn of the ignoble, trust in thy fellows, firm belief in thine own 
lusty muscle, and unconquerable will. I make thee familiar friend of hard- 
ships and content, spare and pure and strong. I give thee joy in the earth, 
the sun, and wind, and belief in the Unseen. This is thy birthright. 

Numerous letters and telegrams of congratulation sent by loving 
friends had been received from many parts of the world. Some of these 
Dr. Polk read, as chairman. 

Dr. Polk read a number of letters and made a few remarks relating 
to'them before being introduced by Dr. Dudley, to respond to the toagt 
assigned to him. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Surgeon " 

Dr. Dudley's Introduction of Dr. Polk 

I suppose Dr. Polk has alluded to the characteristic modesty of Chicago 
in order to give me an opportunity of repeating the prophecy of a fellow 
townsman, that the time may come when the people of Chicago will think 
as much of Chicago as the people of New York think of London ; but we are 
here, not to show that Chicago is greater than New York, for it is not; we only 



"Dr. Emmet, the Surgeon" 361 

think it greater. We are here to do honor to a man of the United States and 
of the world. On this programme we see the name of Emmet, as the surgeon, 
as the teacher, as the medical author, as the litterateur, as the friend, as the patriot. 
These and other quaUties indicate the different phases of his character, each 
complete in itself, and yet we like to think of them in combination just as we 
like to consider, not one, but all the colors of the solar spectrum which com- 
bined to make up the glorious white light, like the white light of truth. So 
the qualities of Emmet when put together are combined in the formation of 
a clean and pure man. 

Let us first consider Emmet as a surgeon; and just at this point I must give 
way to Dr. Polk, for as Whistler holds that the best critic of a work of art is 
one who is able to paint the best kind of picture himself, so Dr. Polk is quite 
prepared to criticise a great surgeon. 

Dr. Polk's Response to the Toast, " Dr. Emmet, the Siirgeon" 

Called upon to respond to this toast, one qtiickly asks in which niche 
should Emmet be placed. The answer comes loud and clear : as the man of great 
operative skill, as the man of broad and sound judgment; and look where we 
may, we find none that surpassed and few that equalled him. As we pass in 
review the events of our Department of Surgery which have transpired during 
the past forty years, we see that the name of Emmet is associated more 
prominently with the great achievements of that period than that of any one 
of his contemporaries. He it was who worked out best the evils springing 
from lacerations of the cervix, and devised the lasting methods of meeting 
them. In the days of his youth that distressing lesion, vesico-vaginal fistula, 
was at the fore, and the beginnings of his reputation based upon its cure by 
silver wire suture were looming above the horizon. But deep in the trials 
of an extensive hospital midwifery service, Emmet found the greater cure in 
recognizing the way to obviate the evil. He it was who drove it so upon us 
that the obstetrical forceps was not the agent through which these trying 
breaches were produced, but, in fact, the agent of prevention, and that the 
prompt, not delayed application of this instrument was the sure means of 
obviating the fistvda; that sloughing, due to prolonged pressure of the foetal 
head when long held in the lower pelvis, was the cause of these false openings, 
and therefore that early application of the forceps to a delayed head when 
so placed was the crying need. Had he done nought else than this his name 
wotild deserve to go down to posterity clothed in lasting honor and covered 
with the gratitude of all mankind ; yet he did more than this even for patients 
suffering motherhood, for look what his incomparable work upon the perineum 
has done for this class of sufferers. In spite of many an attempt to improve 
upon the lines laid down by him for repair of the perineum, his operation to-day 
stands out as the best of all. 

When I entered upon work in the Department of Gynaecology, pelvic 
inflammation was before us as an unsolved problem. The contest was sharp 
concerning his interpolations, and one of the most telling concessions in 



362 Incidents of my Life 

Emmet cases was made when at the meeting of the American Gynaecological 
Society in Baltimore, in 1886, he reviewed the subject, and said that as in all 
questions, as upon a shield, there were two sides, he had been looking upon 
one, while his opponents looked upon another; he had been regarding it 
mainly from the underside of the pelvic diaphragm, while they had seen it 
from the upper. But he laid down those wide and conservative rules of man- 
agement which even the most radical of us have come to accept as the line 
to be followed in most of the cases of this disorder, and thus it has come to pass 
that whereag the time was when all inflamed uterine appendages were thought 
meet for sacrifice, we now see that Emmet's treatment leads the way to reso- 
lution in many a case, and even if the operation has to be done at last, the im- 
proved conditions permit of operative conservatism that saves many an ovary, 
and which there is good reason to believe may even further motherhood. 

The limit of such a speech warns me the time to close this just tribute has 
come, for'there are others present impatiently waiting to do honor to so good 
a subject, and yet I cannot stop without asking, what of Emmet as a man and 
as an associate in his chosen field of activity? Would time permit, I would 
gladly dwell upon the sterling qualities of head and heart which he has always 
exhibited in dealing with his fellowmen. 

Have any of you read the Fifteenth Psalm (Latin Vulgate and translation 
Psalm xiv.) If not, turn to it to-night, and therein you will find David's 
definition of a "Gentleman, " and all I would say of Dr. Emmet, and pondering 
those words and laying them beside the life history of this man you will 
realize, as I do now, that all of us have honored ourselves by coming here 
to-night, for we have lifted up and exalted one of our number, whose life is 
an embodiment of that sublimest principle of earthly life, "truth. " 

" Dr. Emmet, the Teacher " 

Introduction of Dr. Baker by Dr. Dudley 

I could speak at length about Emmet as a teacher, to whom all of us owe 
much; but my friend Dr. Polk, has reminded me that the function of a toast- 
master is to keep the ball rolling, to keep order, and to keep quiet. When we 
think of Emmet as a teacher we think of him also as a hospital chief under 
whom we did not always lead the simple life, unless we consider the simple 
life as interpreted by our Philadelphia friends to be the "pace that kills." 
How familiar the memory, "Sponge, Doctor, sponge; why don't you sponge!" 
"Sponge every time you get a chance." "Let her live a little longer, will 
you, Doctor?" "I wish I cotdd have some one who could assist me the 
way I used to assist Sims." He was a rare chief, a rare teacher. In the 
presence of his pupils "he would not smile, and smile, and smile and be a 
villain still"; on the contrary, his frown was always recognized as an act of 
friendship. That pupil is fortunate who receives his discipline from a friend. 
The history of gynaecology in New England is the history of a pupil of Emmet, 
and the next toast, therefore, "Emmet, the Teacher," will be responded to 



'*Dr. Emmet, the Teacher" 363 

by Dr. Wm. H. Baker of Boston, Professor of Gynecology in the Harvard 
Medical School. 

Dr. Baker's Response to the Toast, "Dr. Emmet, the Teacher" 

I have always esteemed it one of the greatest privileges in my professional 
career to testify to the teaching of Dr. Emmet, and during the lapse of time 
I have selected the choicest parts of my knowledge which experience has 
proved to be of the greatest value, and have found myself more and more 
indebted to the teachings of our highly honored friend. 

It is then most gratifying to me, Mr. Chairman, to respond to your call 
to speak of the high qualities of Dr. Emmet as a teacher. One of the necessary 
elements of a successful teacher is the possession of a thorough knowledge of 
the subject taught ; another and not less important, from a humanitarian point 
of view, and last, the relation of the subject taught to other branches of 
learning of a more or less remote origin. No one who has had the good fortune 
to listen to the lectures, to follow through the hospital wards, or assist in the 
operating room, and thus come in daily contact with our illustrious friend, 
can gainsay that he possessed in an eminent degree all these qualities, and I 
am sure that I voice the feeling of all his pupils when I say that for originality 
of thought, thoroughness of working out the principles as well as the practical 
application of such principles. Dr. Emmet's work was pre-eminent. It is 
impossible to estimate the enormous value and extent of his influence as a 
teacher through the various channels of instruction given by his pupils, who 
have and are still holding the highest positions in medical schools of this and 
other countries. 

His literary work also is a most important factor of instruction. 

In these strenuous days, when we are accustomed to gain quick results 
by carrying out many of the teachings of our early and faithful instructor, we 
sometimes forget the laborious toil and patient persevering work which he 
expended before he perfected the application which led to the adoption of his 
methods. Nor can the thousands of women who are now being cured all over 
the world realize how much they owe their recovery to the teaching of Dr. 
Emmet ; but we of the medical profession know and most gratefully acknow- 
ledge to him all the honor in this direction. 

As an illustration of his individual perseverance, I recall his joy, when 
visiting the hospital one day, in telling me of a bed-ridden case which after 
nine years of persistent work, he had finally cured ; and again I had the pleasure 
of assisting him at an operation in plastic surgery, which was the twenty-sixth 
performed under ether upon this one patient for the same trouble, and which 
resulted in her cure. 

How many of us possess such a degree of patience? Or again, how many 
of us could keep our patient through the time of treatment? Yet, from such 
cases as these I learned the lesson of never yielding to defeat when sure of 
the right treatment. 

Thirty-three years ago the casual observer paid but little heed to the 



364 Incidents of my Life 

teaching of Dr. Emmet in regard to the importance of cleanliness in surgery, 
both of the operator and the patient, and it was not until the importance of 
the deleterious effects upon surgical wounds by the disregard of such teaching, 
as proved by the theories of Pasteur, that the profession was ready to accept 
and adopt such teaching and practices. Yet, I ask you to-day, looking back 
over that period of time and recalling the preparation of patients for plastic 
surgery by Dr. Emmet's instruction, which consisted in the hot water douches, 
which I heard at that time characterized as "boiling the patient," and again 
in following his method in the preparation of the operator, by scrubbing the 
hands and arms with soap and hot water, I repeat and ask you to-day, how 
much short of your accepted technique does the teaching of Dr. Emmet leave 
you? 

I am glad to see on yonder Cathedral Heights the stones being laid for the 
new hospital building, yet its foundation cannot be stronger than the principles 
which Dr. Emmet has taught us, and its superstructure, with all its utility 
and elegance, must always remain a memorial to his life-work and teaching. 

And now, my beloved teacher and friend, I congratulate you on this your 
anniversary day, upon that which has gone before, and upon the present 
honorable and festive occasion. That the crowning years of your life may 
be full of peace, joy, happiness, and a just recognition of the highest appre- 
ciation of your profession, and that your heart will be filled with our love, 
is the wish of us all. 

♦* Dr. Emmet, the Medical Author " 

Introduction of Dr. Gordon by Dr. Dudley 

No man is in a stronger position than Dr. Gordon to prophesy that when 
the fog and smoke and haze of the literature of gynaecology clears away, no 
matter how distant the past, Emmet's writings, Emmet's book on ThePrinciples 
and Practice of Gyncecology, will stand out as a star of the first magni- 
tude, shining, not by pale reflection, but by its own light. It will be remem- 
bered that Grant's Memoirs of the Civil War, written with almost superhuman 
fortitude in the face of fatal disease, was received by the critics as an example 
of strong, terse, clear English composition. A single adverse criticism ap- 
peared from the pen of a professor of rhetoric, the review of a critical rhetori- 
cian of the work of a constructive rhetorician. The professor took exception 
to Grant's writing because in some respects he thought it did not conform 
to conventional standards of English composition. Mark Twain reviewed 
the review in words somewhat as follows: "If we could climb the Matterhorn 
and find strawberries growing on top, we might be surprised and gratified; 
but, great God, we do not climb the Matterhorn for strawberries." 

Dr. Gordon, of Portland, Maine. 

Dr. Gordon's Response to the Toast, *' Dr. Emmet, the Medical Author " 
Mr. Toastmaster and Friends: I came from the far North, where, as 



**Dr. Emmet, the Medical Author" 365 

some speaker has said, the moon is hung with icicles and there it looks no 
larger than a dinner plate. That same moon which smiles upon Florida and 
Louisiana may look colder in Maine, but it is just as large to us as to the people 
in warmer climes. I have lived in both latitudes, and know whereof I speak. 
And while we may, as Mark Twain may have said, have nine months of 
winter, three months late in the fall, yet I bring to our old friend Dr. Emmet 
to-night, just as warm a heart and just as hearty a grasp of the hand as the 
sons of the Southland. I extend to him, in behalf of the profession of the 
North, the most cordial congratulations on this his seventy-seventh birthday. 
Many of us were his pupils to a greater or less degree, and we have kept a 
warm place in our hearts for him as a teacher. If I may be allowed for a 
moment to depart from the spirit of the sentiment, permit me to say that I, 
in company with Dr. Tewksbury of my city, made frequent visits to the 
Woman's Hospital in the eighth decade of the last century, and day after 
day sat at Dr. Emmet's feet, like Saul at the feet of Gamaliel, and learned 
wisdom at his lips, while we watched that careful, systematic detail of his 
plastic operations, performed in a manner that no man excelled and few 
equalled. By this strict attention to detail that pervades everything he ever 
wrote, his work The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology is but a faithful 
record of his daily clinical work, written in a manner the merest tyro in 
medicine could fully comprehend. There was nothing omitted from the book 
that was done in the Woman's Hospital or in his private practice. It is the 
model upon which all treatises on gynaecology have been based and few of 
the modern text-books contain much that is new, except the illustrations. 

If everything was not fully developed it was predicted, and the predictions 
are not far behind the ftilfilment. I remember so well long ago, when the 
brilliant and fascinating lecturer, T. Gaillard Thomas, was revising his book, 
I was driving with him one day while he was making some drawings illustrative 
of the operation for complete laceration of the perineum through the sphincter 
ani, and I was admiring it, he said, "Oh, that is all Emmet's, I was simply 
copying him." These were the days when the giants in gynaecology were in 
their glory; the learned Peaslee, the greatest American pathologist of his day; 
the indefatigable and dogmatic Bozeman, who did most excellent work, and 
later, the lovely and loved Lee. 

But the carefiil, painstaking work embodied in The Principles and Practice 
of our guest to-night will forever remain as the one to which we shall all turn 
as the classic in this department of medical knowledge and science. 

If I were to sum up briefly my estimate of Dr. Emmet as a medical writer, 
it would be somewhat in this way: Somewhere in his book he says, "As I 
advance in life I place a much lower estimate on the common-sense of the 
average individual. " Taking this as a text, I would say that, with an honest, 
intelligent earnestness of purpose, he combined an indefatigable industry in 
an unbounded field of clinical material and carefully discriminating, recorded 
the results of that industry in the most simple common-sense style. Wherever 
gynaecology is known or taught, there is Emmet's book, and will ever be one 
of the foundation stones of the science. It is a monument to him more signifi- 



366 Incidents of my Life 



cant than brass or marble. There was no attempt at rhetorical effects, no 
exaggerated description of symptoms or technique, no reports of resxilts that 
would challenge criticism, nor engender skepticism, but a plain statement 
of the causes, symptoms, and treatment that commends itself to the student 
of gynaecology throughout the civilized world. 

This assembly to-night, composed of all classes of medical men, voice the 
general sentiment of thousands who cannot be present, but who wish you 
all that life can possibly give you. A short time before the death of Pope 
Leo XIII one of his Cardinals called upon him, and bidding him good-bye, 
said, "Holy Father, I hope you may live to be a hundred years old" ; to which 
he replied, "My son, why limit me?" 

So, bidding you good-night, I will not limit you in years, but will assure 
you of the best wishes of all present and a hope that you may live just so 
long as you can fully enjoy both peace of mind and comfort of body. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Litterateur " 

Dr. Dudley's Introduction of His Grace, the Archbishop of New York 

Men, like trees, may die at the top, but not so with our friend. Having 
laid aside the labors of surgery, he has become the scholar and the man of 
affairs, broad enough to look beyond the narrow confines of his calling, to 
appreciate the relations of things outside; he puts his profession on a high 
plane, but he puts the world higher. 

If we would not die at the top, we must not surrender to the sordidness and 
discontent of old age, but forgetful of self, we must cultivate larger interests, 
and so, like our friend, we may gladden the world, and even though we shall 
become the last leaf on the tree, having survived the winter's blast to the 
second spring, we may be not seared and yellow, but still green and filled with 
the fire and enthusiasm of youth. Some years ago, when Froude visited the 
United States, and when at the same time Canon Kingsley was so much in 
evidence, an Irish poet gave forth the following couplets : 

"Froude informs the Scottish youth 
That parsons have no care for truth ; 
While Canon Kingsley loudly cries 
That history is a pack of lies. 
What cause for discord so malign? 

A little thought would solve the mystery; 
Froude thinks Kingsley a divine. 

While Kingsley goes to Froude for history. " 

We know that the Archbishop with all confidence may go to Emmet for 
history as we call upon the Archbishop not only for theology, but as well for 
an estimate of his friend, "Emmet as a Litterateur." I therefore have the 
honor of introducing His Grace, the Most Reverend John Farley, Archbishop 



''Dr. Emmet, the Litterateur" 367 

of New York, whose literary mind has withstood the shock of a theological 
education. 

Remarks of Archbishop Farley 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I believe that I am the only layman 
present, the only person not a physician, a fact which only adds to the happi- 
ness I feel in rising to pay my humble but heartfelt tribute to your eminent 
guest and my friend of many years — Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, the Lit- 
terateur. 

What has he accomplished in his chosen field and in the profession, at the 
head of which he has stood for more than a generation, as you, gentlemen, 
are here to testify, were more than sufficient to render illustrious the life of 
any one man, and to win for him a deathless memory among his colleagues and 
to earn for him the largest measure of that distinction which Ecclesiasticus 
warns us to bestow on the least members of your noble profession, when he 
says: "Honor the physician for the need thou hast of him. His skill shall 
lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be praised. " 

But, full as has been his life of purely professional work, he has found time 
to devote to literature, and to historic research, in which he has been so suc- 
cessful that I question if there are not many who, if choice were given, would 
as gladly be credited with the authorship of his purely literary work, as of the 
surgical and medical labors which have placed him where he stands to-night, 
the leading physician of the land. 

It were too long, however pleasing a task, to review here and now all that 
has come from his facile and fruitful pen. 

Besides being the author of numerous papers and addresses in connection 
with the history of Ireland, and of this, his own country, he has left us two 
books by which his name shall always be remembered: The Emmet Family, 
with Some Incidents Relating to Irish History, a voluminous work issued in 
1898; and Ireland under English Rule, or a Plea for the Plaintiff, published 
in 1902.^ 

The former, The Emmet Family has been pronounced a model, and the 
most complete family history ever written. The exhaustive story it contains 
of Dr. Emmet's father gives rise to the question in the mind of the reader, 
as to what one should admire more — the pure and lofty character of the elder 
Emmet so vividly portrayed or the affection which prompted this labor of 
love and of legitimate pride on the part of the devoted son. 

The work of Dr. Emmet, however, which has naturally attracted most 
attention is Ireland under English Rule. Perhaps more than any other of 
his writings, this book seems to show his wondrous versatility of intellect, 
and that, while physicians may hail him as their leader, he was easily master 
of many things having little affinity with his life's work. 

An American born, bearing in his veins the tide of Ireland's best blood 
on which nothing could long float that is not freighted with the love of that 
fair land, he has shown in this work in what light men of Irish faith and Irish 

' Second Edition issued as a new work, 1909. 



368 Incidents of my Life 

ancestry must ever regaxd the part England has played for centuries in the 
misgovernment of Ireland. While noblesse oblige is the legend one reads 
between the lines of every page of The Plea for the Plaintiff, the leading in- 
centive in writing this history was, doubtless, to lay bare the truth to those 
whom it most concerns — the people of Ireland themselves. Over nine hun- 
dred volumes, the learned author has told me, were consulted in the com- 
position of this monumental work. 

It may fairly be claimed for Dr. Emmet's labor in this history that he has 
probably pronounced the last word on this subject which can be said to the 
purpose in this generation. His conclusions are that England will one day 
do penance for her misrule in Ireland, and "sue to be forgiven"; and that 
the Irish people must be united and patient, as the outlook for Erin in the 
near future was never brighter. 

But I must close. , . . Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the honor of your 
invitation to speak to the toast so much after my own heart, how poorly 
soever I have responded; I thank you, gentlemen, for your patient and cour- 
teous hearing, and permit me to greet you, Sir, our guest, the noblest Roman 
of them all, with heart and soul in the greeting, ad multos, permultos annos. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Friend " 

Introduction by Dr. Dudley of Dr. George Tucker Harrison 

Why can't we make friends like Emmet? The answer is clear: "There is 
only one Emmet." I have great pleasiire in introducing Dr. Harrison, a 
friend who knows all about us and still likes us, who has something more than 
a capacity, who has a genius for friendship. 

"If thou art at Friendship's sacred ca', 

Wad life itself resign, mon? 
This were a kinsman o' thy ane. 

For 'Emmet' is a true mon." 

I present Dr. George T. Harrison of New York. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Friend " 

It is with great pleasure that I rise to respond to this toast, for it is redolent 
of many sweet memories. There is no word in the English language that has 
suffered such abuse in its mode of application as the term "friend." In its 
true significance and proper use, however, there is none that evokes more 
tender and touching associations. 

Says St. Augustine: "The friendship of men is dearly sweet by the union 
of many souls together." 

Sallust declares that to live in friendship is to have the same desires and 
the same aversions; "idem velle et idem nolle, ea demun firma amicitia est." 
It has been happily said there can be no friendship without confidence and 



"Dr. Emmet, the Friend" 369 

no confidence without integrity. Many men are absolutely incapable of 
friendship. 

As Dr. Johnson remarks: "So many qualities are indeed required to the 
possibility of friendship, and so many accidents must concur to its rise and 
its continuance, that the greatest part of mankind content themselves without 
it, and supply its place as they can, with interest and dependence." It has 
been reckoned as one of the many claims to our admiration on the part of 
that ornament of the Elizabethan Age, Sir Philip Sidney, that he was famous 
for inviolable friendships. When Socrates, it is narrated, was building himself 
a house at Athens, being asked by one that observed the littleness of the 
design, why a man so eminent should not have an abode more suitable to 
his dignity, he replied that he should think himself sufficiently accommodated 
if he could see that narrow habitation filled with real friends. 

By which words, I take it, the great philosopher simply wished to dis- 
criminate between his true friends and the vast multitudes who thronged 
around him, attracted by idle curiosity or other ignoble motives. The 
comparison made by La Fontaine between love and friendship is as true as 
it is beautiful: "Love is the shadow of the morning which decreases as the 
day advances; friendship is the shadow of the morning which strengthens 
with the setting sun of life. " 

It is the singular good fortune of our honored guest of the evening that 
he has realized the words of wisdom spoken by Polonius to Laertes : 

"The friends thou hast and their adoption tried. 
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel." 

Let me call the muster-roll of the alumni of the Woman's Hospital and 
sure I am that if the question were asked what name rises first to the lips, in 
recalling their most delightful experiences during their pupilage in that noble 
institution, the answer would come back with one voice — Thomas Addis 
Emmet. 

The reason is not far to seek, because the name is a synonym of perfect 
integrity and exalted character. And while to-night all have assembled to 
crown him with laurel for the splendor of his scientific achievement, it is 
especially as the friend that we salute him and lay at his feet the offering of our 
love, esteem, and reverence. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Patriot " 

Introduction of Dr. F. J. Quinlan by Dr. Dudley 

The next speaker is eminently qualified to tell us of the most worthy 
representative of the young patriot who dying, said: "Let no man write my 
epitaph until Ireland is free. " 

Dr. Quinlan of New York. 

Dr. Quinlan's Response to the Toast 

I have been requested to say a few words in response to the toast : . 
24 



370 Incidents of my Life 

"Dr. Emmet, the Patriot" 

I feel that any words of mine on such a theme must indeed be superfluous, 
since it is an historical fact well known to all my professional brethren here 
to-night, that the name of Emmet stands for all that is highest and holiest 
in the sacred cause of patriotism. The truest test of exalted love of country 
is tersely expressed in the words of the old Roman maxim — "Pro patria mori. " 
And who does not know the history of that noble hero, that close kinsman of 
our distinguished and revered guest, who sacrificed his young life in his coun- 
try's behalf? His name and his deeds are on the lips of every school boy, 
and his pathetic history is embalmed forever in the immortal lines of Erin's 
best beloved bard — Thomas Moore. Who of us has not paid the tribute of 
his tears and his heartfelt admiration to the patriot hero— Robert Emmet, that 
noble scion of a noble race. 

No more convincing testimony to the patriotism of the Emmet family 
could be produced than the following eloquent words of the youthful patriot 
himself: "If the spirits of the illustrious dead participate in the concerns 
and cares of those dear to them in this transitory life, ever dear and vener- 
ated shade of my departed father, look down with scrutiny upon the conduct 
of thy suffering son, and see if I have ever for a moment deviated from those 
principles of morality and patriotism which it was thy care to instill into my 
youthful mind, and for which I am now to offer up my life. " 

Perhaps it may not be so well known to all here that a namesake of our 
honored guest, another Thomas Addis Emmet, a brother of Robert, proved 
his patriotism by enduring the horrors and humiliation of a long imprison- 
ment for the holy cause. Indeed, were it not for this love of country, so 
characteristic of the Emmets, it is quite possible that our guest would not be 
with us to-night. For his ancestor and namesake, accused of conspiracy and 
driven from his native land, joined that grand army of worthy Irishmen who, 
forced by English tyranny to leave their beloved fatherland, sought a home 
and a refuge in this land of the free, and who by their brains and their brawn 
have contributed more than any other nation to the mental and material 
development of our glorious country. 

The patriotic spirit which distinguished the Emmets in the old land did 
not fail to assert itself in the new, and so we find the same Thomas Addis 
Emmet commanding an Irish regiment in the War of 1812, and his eldest son, 
the late Judge Robert Emmet, at the same time a captain in a cavalry regiment, 
and the third son. Lieutenant Temple Emmet, serving under Decatur in the 
navy, all of whom warmly espoused the cause of their adopted country. 

Dr. John Patten Emmet, the father of our guest and also Irish by birth, 
entered the United States Military Academy at West Point about the same 
time to fit himself for a miUtary career, but after a few years was compelled 
by ill-health to abandon the strenuous profession of arms for the more peaceful, 
though not less heroic, profession of medicine. Here the Emmets lay aside 
the sword as the instrument of their patriotism for that mightier and more 
potent weapon, the pen. The profound erudition and marvellous versa- 



''Dr. Emmet, the Patriot" 371 

tility of John Patten Emmet were recognized by no less distinguished an 
authority than the great Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, 
who honored him with the professorship of Natural History, and afterwards 
of Chemistry and Materia Medica, in the celebrated University of Virginia, 
of which Jefferson was the founder. 

It was at this period in his distinguished father's career that our honored 
guest was born at Charlottesville, Virginia. How eminently worthy to hand 
down the noble heritage of patriotism, learning, practical philanthropy, and 
professional skill he has proved himself by his own high achievements, the 
preceding speeches have eloquently informed us. 

I shall mention but a few of the many practical proofs of his love for the 
land of his forefathers, for whose betterment he has been ever ready to labor 
ardently, to write eloquently, and to contribute generously. He was one of 
the Mansion House Committee, which was the custodian, and called to- 
gether the great relief committee during the early seventies, which sent 
many thousands of dollars to the famine-stricken population of Ireland, thus 
saving many from the horrors of starvation and death. He was an early 
member of the Hoffman House Committee to aid Parnell, and was afterwards 
president for about nine years of the Irish National Federation of America, 
where he was instrumental in collecting and forwarding large sums of money 
for the use of the National cause and to forward the Home Rule Movement. 
He had in many instances proved himself a gallant knight of the pen, 
ever ready to enter the lists in defence of his beloved Erin. In his articles, 
Ireland, Past, Present, and Future; Irish Emigration during the Seventeenth 
and Eighteenth Centuries, a paper read before the American Irish Historical 
Society; England's Destruction of Ireland's Manufactories, Commerce, and 
Population, a public address delivered at the Cooper Union; Why Ireland Has 
Never Prospered Under English Rule, a magazine article; The Emmet Family, 
with Some Incidents Relating to Irish History, etc., a work of over four hundred 
pages, which has been judged to be the best family history ever written; and 
recently, Ireland under English Rule, etc., in two volumes, a work which has 
been already accepted as an authority, together with other papers and ad- 
dresses, all of which plead Ireland's wrongs to the world with an eloquent 
cogency bom of the most ardent patriotism. 

It is eminently fitting, therefore, that we do honor to-night to Dr. Emmet 
as a patriot, whose lofty love of country is worthy to rank with those other 
brilliant qualities and notable achievements in the medical profession, which 
place him in the foremost rank of humanity's greatest benefactor. 

Introduction by Dr. Dudley of Sir William Hingston 

There is a unanimous call for a few words from the great surgeon of Canada 
— Sir William Hingston. 

Sir William Kingston's Response 

It was a pleasure and a privilege for me to accept the invitation extended 



372 Incidents of my Life 

to me by your committee to be present at this dinner to honor Dr. Emmet, 
as, apart from the reverence I hold for his scientific work, to know him was to 
love and respect him. In travelling over Europe I have found that no name 
was so frequently mentioned in continental clinics as that of Emmet. This 
was true not only in the larger cities, but even in the smaller university towns. 
Practical gynascologists thought no encomivmi too high to pay to his worth 
as a man and a surgeon. Personal friends of his, living in the same city with 
him, know that he well deserves the expression which the French inhabitants 
of Canada sometimes use with regard to one whom they thoroughly respect — 
" He is white all through, " // est blanc partout. It is not his books — and they 
are most valuable — nor his many important methods of treatment and opera- 
tions, which have counted most in Emmet's career. But it is the example 
of his sterling honesty in his professional life and in the fact that he was never 
addicted to the doing of anything small or petty. Never did he do an opera- 
tion for the sake of doing it, nor for the eclat or profit which its successful 
performance might bring to him. 

With regard to one operation which has been much vulgarized in recent 
years. Dr. Emmet once said to me that he would rather a fev/ women should 
have suffered without alleviation than that so many shotild have been operated 
upon without reason and without necessity, and that he would almost prefer 
not to have been the originator of the operation. In Canada, Dr. Emmet is 
held in as high estimation as in his native country, and the tribute of respect 
meted out to him here fairly represents the feeling of the profession across the 
sea. 

Introduction of Dr. Emmet by Dr. Dudley 

There is, perhaps, a question as to whether it is good form for one to 
drink to his own health. Let us, however, propose the health of our beloved 
leader in such a way that he will have to join us: 

When we are seventy-seven, may we mentally, morally, and physically 
stand as straight as he does now. 

I was called on at so late an hour that I made but a few extempora- 
neous remarks, having but little reference to what I had intended to say, 
but what I had prepared has been already worked into the narrative of 
the Incidents. 

I was reported to have said [from the Medical News, New York, 
Junes, 1905]: 

In his closing address, Dr. Emmet said that an Irish friend of his, who was 
very old, announced that he expected to see his friends only once more, and 
that at his funeral. Personally he is very glad that he had the opportunity 
to see his friends before the funeral. During the week that had passed since 
he learned of the dinner that was to be given him, he had felt that if he 
were a woman he would go off into a corner and have a good cry over it. 
Some of the memories of the past came crowding back, and perhaps there is 



Remarks by Dr. Emmet 373 

nothing that he could tell of more interest than to speak of himself. Since 
the age of fourteen he has had "to hoe his own row. " As a boy he had been 
a kind of Buster Brown. Many a time he has had his ride through the streets 
of Charlottesville on a razorback hog." 

It would be a repetition to repeat the portion following. In con- 
clusion : 

When he came to New York he had $300 and was glad to make visits in 
the tenements for twenty-five cents a visit; and was especially rejoiced when 
the money was paid on the spot. He had been blessed beyond the average, 
and something of the blessing he had tried to pay for by helping young medical 
men when he could. At seventy-five he began the study of Irish, and had 
found it one of the consolations of his later years. To all physicians he would 
say, "have a hobby and get as much fun out of it as you can." A celebration 
like this to-night makes him feel forty again, and the best that he could wish 
to all the friends who had been so kind to him, is that life may flow on as full 
of sunshine for them to the end of a long, long life, as it had for him. 

Dr. Emmet was so much gratified at the remarkable success of the dinner 
in every respect, that he addressed a letter of thanks to Dr. Coe, as the Chair- 
man of the Dinner Committee, and received the following reply : 

My dear Friend and Master: 

I am deeply touched by your letter, and when I read it I felt that I had 
been richly repaid for my work in connection with the dinner. It was purely 
a labor of love and it might have been a larger one and more widely advertised 
gathering, like the Osier banquet, but I can assure you that every man there 
came gladly and without urging, while at least one hundred more would have 
been present if the time of the year had not been unpropitious. 

I send a few letters which may be of interest to you. Had I known that 
the speeches would be so good I would have provided a medical reporter to 
take down verbatim. I did have a reporter, but after drinking his bottle of 
champagne, he skipped without waiting for the toasts. 

Let me assure you of my unchanging affection and respect, and wish you 
may continue to grow old graceftilly for many years to come. 

Cordially yours, 

Henry C. Coe. 

Shortly after I received another letter from Dr. Coe. 

Dear Doctor Emmet : 

Through the kindness of several friends who wished to show their affection 
for you, although they could not be present at the dinner, we came out so far 
ahead financially that I have ventured to put the surplus into a loving cup. 



374 Incidents of my Life 

This will serve as a constant reminder of the fact that you have that which 
should accompany age — honor, love, obedience, and troops of friends. 

Cordially yours, 

H. C. COE. 

Shortly after I gave at my residence, a dinner to the committee and 
speakers, when the loving cup was presented. 
Inscription on the loving cup : 

Presented 

to 

THOMAS ADDIS EMMET, M.D., LL.D. 

In commemoration of a banquet given by his professional 

friends on his seventy-seventh birthday — May 29, 1905 
In token of their esteem as expressed in the following toasts: 

Introduction Dr. E. C. Dudley, of Chicago. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Surgeon " Dr. W. M. Polk, of New York. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Teacher" Dr. Wm. H. Baker, of Boston. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Medical Author " Dr. S. C. Gordon, of Portland, Me. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Litterateur " His Grace, the Most Rev. Arch- 
bishop Farley. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Friend " Dr. Geo. T. Harrison, New York. 

" Dr. Emmet, the Patriot " Dr. F. J. Quinlan, of New York. 

Sir William Hingston, of Montreal, Canada. 

Henry C. Coe, M.D. 

George H. Mallett, M.D. 

LeRoy M. Brown, M.D. 

On the reverse side : 

To the Memory of my Father. 

To his Example and Early Training I owe my 

Success in Life: 

In youth I have aimed to merit his approbation; 

In manhood I have strived to be worthy of his 

Good Name. 

(Taken from the Dedication of Dr. Emmet's book: The Principles and 
Practice of Gyncecology which he dedicated to his father.) 

In my own printed copy, giving an account of the dinner, I laid down 
head and tail pieces and bound up many extra illustrations of portraits and 
a large number of letters received after the dinner, regretting the wrriters 
could not be present, or expressing their appreciation of my work. On the 
fly-leaf of this volume I have -wTitten : 



JsmJrnH eibbA 8£moriT .aiM 
0881 .riqEiyoJoriq b moi"? 



MET, M.D., LL.D. 

et given by his professional 
h birthday — May 29, 1905 
ssed in the following toasts: 



Mrs. Thomas Addis Emmet 
From a photograph, 1880 



)f my Father. 
■ Training I owe my 

1 pprobation; 
d to be worthy of his 

ime. 



Death of my Wife 375 

This volume I have illustrated and arranged especially for my grandson, 
Thomas Addis Emmet, son of Robert. In doing this I wished to leave to him 
an example of my work of this character, which has been so constant a source 
of relaxation and pleasure to me during a long and busy life. "Illustrating" 
has been my chief "hobby, " and as an incentive to the acquisition of knowl- 
edge it has done much, I think, to refine my life and place it upon a higher 
plane. As a resource of constant interest, it has occupied fully my leisure 
moments and has thus saved me from many a temptation. 

To few men has the opportunity ever been granted to balance their life 
account, as I have been able to do, on the testimony presented at this dinner 
by those who have been in a position to judge of my merits. With the Grace 
of God and unusual opportunities, I have been able to benefit humanity, and 
in the judgment of my confreres, I have not passed a useless life. Thanks 
to God, if this be true. 

It is a prayer I express in the wish that, should my grandson reach his 
seventy-seventh birthday, the incentive of his grandfather's record may have 
enabled him to make a like claim to faithful use of his opportunities, and in the 
discharge of his duty. 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 

New York, October 6, 1906. 

Below in Irish text : 

GO MBA H-E BAIL O DIA AIR 

Literally, in English : May God grant him the same opportunity. 

If an apology be due to the reader for the space given to an account 
of this dinner, it must rest on my conviction that this incident was the 
most important one of my life. 

My wife took the greatest interest in everything connected with this 
dinner, and when the account was printed she had a hearty laugh over 
the apt application of many of my quotations from Shakespeare. 

Shortly after this time came the turning point in her health and 
her condition became one of constant anxiety to me. She returned 
to the city after spending the summer in the country somewhat stronger, 
but it was only temporary. On the 24th of November her summons was 
a sudden one, and with her spirit to the next world passed out the bright 
light from my life. 



Chapter XXVII 



Spent the winter of 1905-06 at Palm Beach — Had to make a great effort to keep myself 
steadily employed — Made much progress in the study of Irish — Slipped while getting out 
of a bath tub and was injured — Wrote a paper on the "Battle of Harlem," showing it was 
not fought in the neighborhood of Colimibia College — At Narragansett Pier during the 
siunmer of 1906 — Had another fall over a trunk — May possibly be getting used to it, as 
the fall did not cost me my life — Dec. 29, 1906, was invested by His Grace, the Most Rev. 
Archbishop Farley, with the insignia of a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory 
the Great, from His Holiness, Pius X — An accoimt of the proceedings — Copies of letters 
written for the public press relating to Irish affairs — Passed the summer with my son and 
family in the Scotch Highlands — The altitude above the sea was too great for the con- 
dition of my heart — On my return wrote an open letter for the public, showing the great 
change for the better which had taken place in England during the past generation 
towards the Irish people, and the needs of that coimtry — The Methodist Bishop, who, 
when asked, on entering the House of Commons, whom he served, answered: "The Lord 
Jehovah," was mistaken by the official at the door to be the valet of some Scotch Lord 
bearing that title — In Jtme, 1908, published an important letter on the Irish situation of 
affairs— With some home truths for the Irish people themselves — An original plan for 
gaining Home Rule for Ireland. 




SPENT the winter of 1905-06 at Palm Beach, Florida, 
seeking to keep myself steadily employed with my 
Gaelic studies and with writing in relation to Irish 
matters. Dining the winter, in getting out of my 
bath, my foot slipped on the smooth bottom of the 
porcelain tub and I fell, striking my chest, just over 
the region of the heart, with great force, on the edge 
of the bath tub and my head against the floor, where I lay for some 
moments sttmned. I had more or less pain for several weeks on taking a 
long breath, with some irregularity of the heart, yet I gradually got better, 
but with an intermitting pulse. 

During the winter my attention was called to an article published in 
one of the New York evening papers relating an accoimt of the Battle of 
Harlem Heights, which was located by the writer of the article as having 
been on the present grounds of Columbia College, As this subject had 
been one to which I had given much study, I prepared an article and sent it 

376 



Order of St. Gregory the Great 377 

to the paper. The manuscript was returned, thanking me, but with the 
statement that the subject was not desirable for pubHcation! As the 
same result had happened to me several times before from my efforts to 
educate the public by giving the truth, I put the article away and forgot 
it. Some time after, during a visit from Mr. WiUiam Abbatt, the editor 
of the Magazine of History, I mentioned the circumstance. He desired 
to see it and pubHshed the article in the September (1906) number of the 
magazine. The greater portion of this is given in Note X of the Appendix, 
and will be a subject of interest to many who are interested in historical 
events in connection with New York. 

I spent the summer of 1906 at Narragansett Pier, keeping myself 
hard at work. Coming from my bath one morning and passing along a 
dark passageway I stepped aside to let a woman pass, when I fell over a 
steamer trunk left outside one of the rooms. I fell over the length 
of the trunk with great force, striking my chest in almost the same place 
over my heart, and my head against the floor, leaving me unconscious. 
I was picked up by a nurse, who was looking after some one sick in an 
adjoining room, and I was heard to express myself, with a sigh, in a 
manner every Southerner will understand as the result of early association: 
"The old nigger ain't dead yet." With the instinct of a surgeon, I had 
run my hand down my leg, knowing if it was broken the probabilities 
were that I would be in the hands of an undertaker in less than a week. I 
have no recollection of making the examination or of using the expression, 
but I have no doubt I did so. "The old nigger" came very near being 
"knocked out," as it was some time before I recovered from the shock 
and my heart settled down to its regular work. 

Shortly after my return to the city I was notified that I was about to 
be the recipient of an honor I cotdd never have anticipated, and soon 
cards of invitation were issued, stating: 

The Most Reverend Archbishop of New York 

cordially invites you to a 

Reception 

at the Archiepiscopal Residence 

452 Madison Avenue 

Thursday, December twentieth, eight-thirty p.m. 

in honor of 

Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet 

who will then be invested by his Grace 

<vit>) the insignia of the Order of St. Gregory the Great 

lately conferred on him 

by his Holiness 

Pius X. 



378 Incidents of my Life 

The Catholic News, New York, Dec. 29, 1906, gave the following report : 

On the invitation of the Most Rev. Archbishop Farley about 250 gentlemen 
including prelates, priests, and laymen, gathered at the Archiepiscopal Resi- 
dence on Thursday evening, Dec. 20th, to witness the investiture of Dr. 
Thomas Addis Emmet with the insignia of Knight Commander of St. Gregory 
the Great, to which honor he had been raised by Pope Pius X. 

The ceremony which was most impressive, was performed by the Arch- 
bishop assisted by the Right Rev. Bishop Cusack, and Monsignors Mooney, 
Lavelle, Edwards, McCready, and Kearney. The papal brief' was read by 
the Rev. 0. J. McMackin, after which his Grace placed the insignia, a gold 
octagonal cross, bearing an image of St. Gregory the Great with a ribbon of 
the papal colors, about Dr. Emmet's neck, his Grace then tapped the re- 
cipient of the order three times on the shoulder with a sword and said, 
"Arise, Sir Knight!" Then followed the reading of prayers to which the 
entire assembly responded. 

The Archbishop, standing on the dais, with the prelates grouped about him, 
delivered the following brief address : 

"Sir Knight and Gentlemen: I shall not detain you many minutes, as 
there is a gentleman here who is to speak to you and who can speak more 
eloquently than I. But I cannot permit such an occasion as this to pass 
without giving expression to my own feelings. 

Seldom is it allowed to me to take part in a ceremony, outside of the higher 
and holier one of my esteemed office, which gives me so much gratification and 
pleasure as the ceremony which I have taken part in here this evening. I 
am called upon by his Holiness, Pius X., to invest one of our most distin- 
guished citizens with the insignia of Knight Commander of the Order of St. 
Gregory the Great. 

As you know, the Church in the course of history has instituted different 
orders of knighthood from time to time as exigencies calling for such orders 
arose, but it is a long list to mention them all. Some of them, however, are 
familiar to you, among which may be mentioned the Knights Templars and 
Knights Hospitalers. These orders of knighthood have passed away because 
the need that called them forth has disappeared. But they have left behind 
them on history an indelible mark, and although the Church no longer has these 
orders of knighthood, our non-Catholic brothers have felt it an honor to 
take up their names. 

Later on the church instituted other orders of a less militant character, 
and amongst the most honored of these is the Order of St. Gregory the Great, 
instituted by Gregory XVI., in 1831, in honor of Gregory I., the first of the 
name, Gregory the Great, who has left his name in the history of the Church 
and has come down to us after fourteen hundred years as one of the greatest 
names in the Church's history for his learning and valor. 

It may be asked how is it that the Pope can single out the deserving ones 
from amongst his millions of faithful servants? He is on the watch tower of 

' See Appendix, Note XV. 



Account of Investiture 379 

the Church, overlooking the whole universe. He notes not only the service 
that is rendered to the Church by ecclesiastics, but also the work of laymen 
who have claims upon his appreciation. In the brief that has just been read 
for you, his Holiness recites some of the reasons why he has chosen you, sir, 
for this distinction. He refers therein to the fact so well known to all your 
fellow- citizens that you have arisen to eminence in your profession. 

I was present a few years ago at a demonstration, unique in the history 
of the medical profession, given to Dr. Emmet, where some 145 physicians 
tendered him a dinner on the occasion of his seventy-seventh birthday. A 
large proportion of the physicians present had formerly disagreed with Dr. 
Emmet's theories, and the dinner was given as an acknowledgment that he 
was right and they were wrong. This and such things came to the knowledge 
of the Holy Father. He also learned that in your passionate love for the 
truth you did not overlook the claims of the true church, and having found 
truth you lost not an instant in embracing it, and that, too, at a time when we 
were not so well represented as we are to-day. To-day we stand well repre- 
sented amongst the leaders of every profession. In coming into the Catholic 
Church you brought with you the prestige of a name most honored in history. 
To-day we stand in the presence of a condition of things that calls forth the 
profession of faith from the heart of every Catholic in the land. I am com- 
pelled to say that you are one of those who would not hesitate at any instant, 
any moment, to make any sacrifice to show your devotion to the head of the 
Church, the brave, glorious, suffering, patient Pontiff, Pius X. 

Sir, may your years be long yet in the land. May you wear this new honor 
as you have worn the honors that have already come to you, and may this 
insignia go down to your posterity with the other marks you hold in the 
nobility of the name of Emmet. " 

The Archbishop introduced Dr. James L. Walsh, the Dean of the 
Medical Faculty at Fordham University, who delivered an eloquent eulogy 
on the career of Dr. Emmet. 

To give what Dr. Walsh so kindly stated would be but to repeat much 
cited at the birthday dinner; if I found fault it would be; "It out-Herods 
Herod." 

It is but just to place on record the expression of his personal relation : 

This is the man whom the Pope has honored with Knight Commandership 
in the Order of St. Gregory the Great, and there can be no personal doubt of 
how well deserved the honor has been. We members of the medical pro- 
fession look up to Emmet as one of the great workers of our progressive science 
during the nineteenth century. Even more than a physician, however, he 
deserved to be honored for the noble example of unselfish manhood that his 
life has been, and all of us who are here assembled may be proud to think 
that he has been for long years a fellow-member of that Church to which we 
are all glad to belong. 



380 Incidents of my Life 

May he live long to enjoy the honors that have come to him so worthily 
in his old age, and may we in New York have the privilege of being able to 
greet Sir Thomas Addis Emmet as one of our most distinguished New Yorkers 
until the twentieth century shall in its glorious progress have cast into shadow 
even the brilliant deeds of the nineteenth. 

I might here close my life's account as the merchant balances his 
ledger. I am assured by those who have had the opportunity for judging 
that I did not hide away the talent intrusted to me, but availed myself 
of the opportunities given me, and that my life's work was creditably 
performed. If so, I will receive the only tangible reward, the one to be 
bestowed hereafter. 

The Holy Father, Pope Pius X., whom, I believe to be God's representa- 
tive on earth in all matters of Faith, has likewise indorsed my efforts. 
While this indorsement is not a matter of faith, and is but the action of a 
human being, the office he holds places him in such an exalted position 
that I cannot doubt it as an assurance I will receive a reward hereafter. 

During the winter of 1906 and spring of 1907, I wrote a number of 
letters and articles for the public press in relation to Irish political matters. 
They were all for educational purposes, and the following, in relation to the 
near future, was one of the most important written for the Irish World of 
New York. 

Dear Mr. Ford: I was very glad to read Archbishop Ryan's letter and I 
thank you for sending it to me. I sail early to-morrow. I am going abroad 
to see my grandchildren. The trip seems to me a great undertaking, but it 
may not be God's will that I should have the strength of to-day if I delay 
going. 

Now that you have published my letter, written in January last, I feel 
at liberty to explain more in detail the views I have held for years and am 
surprised that others have not recognized the same difficulty. 

How is it possible for the English Government to grant to Ireland the 
first step towards Home Rule, without having previously nullified with 
the consent of Ireland as the other claimed contracting party, the Act of the 
Union? That Act was to provide a special form of government (which, it is 
true, was never carried out by England) for that country, and with a purpose 
admitting of no other form. Therefore, two forms of government could not 
exist for Ireland at the same time, nor could a substitute have a beginning 
in action until the obstruction had been removed. 

There can be no question as to the existence of a Parliament for the King- 
dom of Ireland, although its action had been warped and perverted by force 
in the interest of a favored section. By force the action of this body was 
placed in abeyance, but no action of a government — and especially an alien 
one — could destroy the prerogative of an elective parliament, which has its 
beginning and must have its ending with the will of the people, and which 



Irish Political Matters 381 

by right could be the only limit of its power. The English Government may 
by force disperse the members and prevent a meeting of the Irish people, 
but when the force of suppression becomes removed, from any cause, the 
full powers of Parliament as previously existing are at once in being. 

I cannot believe if an honest desire exists to render justice, that any court 
in England, made familiar with the method and truthful details of bringing 
about the so-called Union of Ireland and England, covild hold on the evidence, 
that such a Union was legal, honest, or desirable. 

The English must be educated as to the necessity for justice and fair play, 
or the Irish people must be content to wait and to watch their opportunity 
to right themselves in England's difficulties; and come the opportunity cer- 
tainly will. On the other hand, if England could appreciate that not only her 
own gain, but even possibly her own preservation, as a first class power, rests 
with gaining Ireland as the only available ally, thus securing a lasting peace 
between the two countries. But there can be no lasting peace until Ireland 
has a full measure of Home Rule in the management of her own affairs ; nor 
can there ever be a lasting peace between the two countries until the Union has 
been repealed, and until this has been accomplished there can be no Home Rule 
in any form. With repeal of the Union there would exist the needed status quo 
from the Irish Parliament. Home Rule would be gained in consequence. 
[I would add in addition that if every English member of Parliament 
was in favor of Home Rule for Ireland, any consent would have to be defined 
and it would be found impossible with the best intentions, for that body to 
agree on details. Repeal the Union, and as soon as this has been done, 
the Irish Parliament will possess the power and right it formerly had to 
manage its own affairs.] 
I send you a copy of a letter in my possession [see Appendix, Note XI] 
written by James Duane, a member of Congress (1780) from New York during 
the Revolution and one of the Committee of Secret Intelligence, who here 
writes a confidential letter to George Clinton, the Governor of New York. 

This letter shows that the Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland did possess 
the power of protection. History shows that this power was considered innate, 
and was fully acknowledged to be so by George the Third, King of Ireland, 
and was guaranteed to exist by the action of the English Parliament, in the 
form of the most binding obligation possible to be formed between two con- 
tracting powers. Yet the obligation was carried out by England with as 
little good faith as she ever observed any other pledge made with a Power too 
weak to enforce an observance. In violation of her honor she forced the so- 
called rebellion of 1798 that she might claim the necessity of the Union, and 
both purposes were accomplished by a degree of brutality and corruption 
never equalled in history. Now for a repeal of the Union, and Home Rule 
afterwards. 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 
New York, June 19, 1907. 

I spent three months abroad, and some two months in the Highlands 



382 Incidents of my Life 

of Scotland where my son had a place during the shooting season. I soon 
found the elevation was too great at my age, and with a heart which had 
been very irregular in its action since I had fallen several years before, I 
there suffered frequently from attacks of palpitation. I had to take less 
exercise, feeling that on reaching the level of the sea again I would soon 
be in my former condition. For a portion of the time every week we 
had a different house-party, and I enjoyed my association with them in 
acquiring some knowledge from the English standpoint as to Irish affairs, 
and I tried to learn if any change had taken place of late years. On my 
return on the steamer I embodied my experience in an interesting letter 
to the New York Irish World, October 26, 1907. (See Appendix, Note 
XII.) 

I returned on the steamer with an old friend and former patient, 
living in one of the western cities, who enjoyed a good story and among 
many others she told me the following : A distinguished Methodist bishop 
who was very careless about his personal appearance told her, with great 
enjoyment, the following story against himself. He visited the House of 
Commons and sent his card in to a member for the purpose of obtaining 
admission. While walking up and down before the entrance waiting the 
answer, the assistant doorkeeper getting sight of him and taking him to be 
a valet waiting for orders, or fearing he might obstruct the way, called 
out : ' ' Say my man, here ! Whom do you serve ? " "I serve the great Lord 
Jehovah," was the answer. As he had never heard of the title before and 
was not certain if it could be found in the British Peerage, he turned to the 
grand high functionary seated in state within the door and said: "Who 
is the Lord Jehovah, anyway?" The answer was: "Oh, he is one of those 
little one horse Scotch lords and there is no use bothering with him, let 
his man go on." 

I went south early in January, 1908, much enfeebled in body, and on 
my return from Florida in April I had gained but little. Three weeks at 
Old Point Comfort, Virginia, was beneficial and I reached home in May 
very much improved in my general health and digestion. I felt strong 
enough to go to work, and began to read and annotate a number of books 
connected with Irish history, which I had recently received and needed in 
the preparation of the second edition of my work, Ireland under English 
Rule. I had scarcely begun when the occasion occurred for writing the 
following letter, to influence public opinion among those interested in 
Irish affairs — and published in the Irish World, June 27, 1908: 

Editor of the "Irish World." 

The following is an answer to a gentleman who sent me a letter to read in 
which was expressed the views of his correspondent on the present status in 



Letter on Irish Affairs 3^3 

Irish affairs. As the contents of the letter were in keeping with much that I 
have read of late in some of the Irish newspapers, I send my comment: 

I thank you for giving me the opportunity of reading the letters addressed 
to you, and of using an old man's privilege of freely expressing his opinion. I 
may claim some right to do this. Through my great-grandmother, of County 
Kerry, the mother of Thos. Addis and Robert Emmet, I received my Irish 
blood, and my ancestors on both sides were settlers in that part of Ireland from 
early in the reign of the first James. Moreover, from close study in after-life 
of the Irish people and their peculiarities, I reached certain conclusions which 
may not be held as presumptuous if offered as the basis of this letter. 

The natural disposition of the Irish people is, as a whole, charming and un- 
like that of any other nation ; but it is often marred by defects rarely presented 
or associated together in the same individual of other nationalities. The old 
clan system prevented the development of a true national spirit, but in no 
country was love of home and the places of birth ever greater than in Ireland. 
It is only within a century and a half that any semblance of nationality came 
into being, but the spirit gradually increased and has become more general 
with the past few years. This was owing to the close association of individuals 
and the meeting of those from different parts of Ireland in the branches of the 
different Irish leagues. 

But for this absence of nationality among the Irish people, the English 
domination of Ireland would have ceased centuries ago. 

In consequence of this old influence and with less interest in common on 
account of the Penal Laws, the Irish became to a great extent mistrustful of all 
who were not in close relation with themselves individually, and had but little 
confidence in any leader from their own race. 

The Irish people have always been easily roused to enthusiasm for any fresh 
undertaking, and as a rule, as easily discouraged, seeking frequent change from 
an unwillingness to exercise the patience necessary for accomplishing any 
result. Thanks be to God that He did not make all Irishmen alike, or even the 
greater part with the same defects. But unfortunately there has always been 
in evidence a sufficient number, with these defects, to retard the progress to 
some extent of every undertaking in Ireland for centuries past. Not infre- 
quently complete failure has been traced to the same influence. 

Under these adverse circumstances the impiilse to find fault and freely 
criticise the work and motives of all who take an active part in public affairs, 
seems irresistible to many. No public man, or body of men acting as leaders, 
can claim to be above criticism, and an issue should always be made where 
tangible cause exists. But criticism, calculated to discourage others without 
reason, and offered simply as evidence of a supposed interest in the cause, is 
not justifiable. Particularly is this so when the critic is unable to offer a 
reliable substitute, not calculated to retard progress. 

If he who is always calling for a fight, as the only means of relieving Ireland, 
would quietly shut his mouth and for diversion give the lion's tail the first 
twist, I am sure no Irishman woiild offer any objection. Moreover, if he 
could hold on long enough there need be no fear of his not having a following 



384 Incidents of my Life 

and, while twisting others would be left free to act in accord with their 
judgment. 

This plan of procedure shotild apply to all, and there is room for all to work 
for Ireland's relief to the full bent, provided the work of the majority be not 
impeded. All should be left with a free hand unless the exigency arises for 
expression of opinion, or for more positive action to be directed by the majority. 
In my own case I meet the issue which would be made by the statement that I 
give utterance only to such views as I know would meet the approval of the 
majority of the Irish people, and if my judgment differed from the majority I 
should be silent. 

The simple fault-finder in Irish affairs is wanting in charity, and in reality 
he serves the English Government to the same extent as though he were under 
pay to create discord and mistrust among the unthinking portion of the Irish 
people. The last step necessary to establish Ireland's independence, as a 
people qualified to govern themselves, will be taken when all are willing to 
grant to others what they would ask for themselves — patience and a little 
charity in awaiting restdts, and particularly not to misjudge. 

Until some approximation to such a condition has been reached, the Irish 
people must be satisfied to remain to some extent in a state of probation as to 
self-government. I believe that such a change is being rapidly effected. 
The force exercised by a united people is irresistible, and a valuable lesson is 
to be learned from the condition which existed in Norway and forced a peaceful 
separation from Sweden, which would have been impossible if unity had not 
been produced in Norway by putting aside every personal consideration for 
the public good. 

I began to learn Irish history by tradition before I could read, and I have 
since endeavored to increase my knowledge by every other means. While 
I have been a steady reader my information has not been gained from so-called 
Irish history, of which nothing could be truer than Voltaire's cynical claim that 
"history did not always lie." In my experience the exceptions have generally 
proved the rule. It has been with me a life-long effort to train my mind to the 
study of circumstantial evidence as historic proof, so far as it covdd be traced 
as to cause and effect. 

From the general destruction of Irish historical material by the English 
and the mutilation of much which has been preserved, the history of Ireland 
has never been truthfully written and never can be, I fear, unless the facts be 
drawn out with the aid of circumstantial evidence, often the most reliable as 
it is seldom at fault. 

I have long reached the conclusion that there was no real failure for many 
years on the part of the Irish people to advance their cause for self-government. 
The idea so generally held by those who had not given one thought to the 
subject is that each special Irish movement, outbreak, or rebellion, had then 
its beginning. And as no result was in evidence at the end but the punishment 
of the participators, the whole was judged a failure. This is not true. As well 
might it be claimed in case of war that it had a beginning with each battle. 
Every movement made by the people of Ireland during the past one hundred 



True Conditions of Ireland 385 

andfifty years, in the nature of resistance to the power of England, accomplished 
something and was a step towards the end. Consequently the act of every 
individual Irishman who ever made an effort to benefit his country rendered 
essential aid thereby to the completion of that particular step in which he 
took part. Personally, I have always had a feeling of the greatest respect for 
every individual who has ever made an effort to serve Ireland with the courage 
of his convictions, and I have maintained the sentiment without regard to his 
political views. 

The present movement of the Irish people to improve their condition had 
its beginning in 1783, just after the termination of the Revolutionary War in 
this country, and since that time to the present there has existed no inertia, 
nor has the standard ever lacked a bearer. The action of the " Grattan Parlia- 
ment," composed entirely of Protestants; the efforts of the Presbyterians of 
the North for religious freedom and Catholic Emancipation; the "Rebellion" 
of 1798; the "Outbreak" of 1803; Catholic Emancipation; O'Connell's efforts 
for the repeal of the fraudulent Union; the "Young Ireland" movement in 
1848; the efforts of the Fenians; disestablishment of the so-called "Irish 
Church," "as by law established"; the first Land Act and all subsequent 
ones ; the breaking up of the landlord system ; the beginning of the redistribu- 
tion of the land among the people, with a number of other equally important 
measures in their way— these were all part of the one general movement for 
the benefit of the Irish people. 

The above-cited record is the result of Irish agitation. With each conces- 
sion gained and fitted in its place as a properly chiselled and squared stone in a 
well constructed wall, the whole forms a solid foundation for what is to come 
hereafter and be based upon it. 

Many will accept with doubt the statement that the much abused Fenian 
movement was the most important of all as to its beneficial restdts. The most 
enthusiastic participant in the Fenian organization, who finally accepted the 
end as a dire failure, could have had no anticipation of what was rendered 
possible to be gained for the benefit of the Irish people. What has been gained 
since was due to the practice of their much censured policy in the use of dyna- 
mite, as their last means of defence. Mr. Gladstone and others have fully 
acknowledged this statement to be true. The Irish people in addition have 
cause to be thankful that, through fear of the consequences, the provocation 
from coercion will never be offered again in Ireland. 

Now, as to the true condition of the people and affairs in Ireland in the past 
and at the present time, I shall base my statement not on hearsay, but on 
what I know to be the actual condition from personal observation. My 
investigation extended over many years to a comparatively recent date, and 
there has been no evidence of any change since, but for the better. I have 
reason to believe that between seventy-five and eighty per cent, of the whole 
population of Ireland are to-day in sympathy with the National party, and the 
proportion is increasing rapidly, including many former Unionists and, it is 
claimed, even some Orangemen. I am ignorant as to the exact number 
enrolled as members of the different branches of the United Irish League, but 



386 Incidents of my Life 

those who are not members form an insignificant part. As a whole it is the 
most numerous and best organized poHtical body ever formed in Ireland. I 
am convinced no political party in any other country ever reached so near a 
unit in the desire for the rule of the majority. 

I am equally certain no leader in this country within the memory of any 
one now living ever received so nearly a unanimous endorseraent as Mr. 
Redmond obtained from every national convention which has met in Dublin 
in late years. It is claimed by some that nothing has been accomplished for 
Ireland's benefit under the leadership of Mr. Redmond, and in consequence the 
Irish members of Parliament should resign and leave Ireland unrepresented! 
The only deduction to be drawn from such an illogical proposition is that, 
as a prolonged effort of years produced no result, as claimed, a state of inaction 
would gain the desired effect. Home Rule or any other result as you will, but 
this expectation is the obtaining of something from nothing! There can be 
but one judgment as to the partisan from a practical standpoint. Those who 
hold such views, if honest, are either mentally deficient, or are in such a hope- 
less state of ignorance and general prejudice as to the true condition, that it is 
a waste of time to discuss the matter. 

There is a homely and trite saying of the people as to the "cutting off the 
nose to spite the face," and this would be Ireland's position if she remained 
unrepresented in the Imperial Parliament. The relation of the Irish people 
with the British Government is not in our day one of sentiment or choice, but 
one in which the interest of Ireland is to be considered by her people only 
from the most practical standpoint. It is no favor granted to Ireland by which 
she woiild have a representation in the British Parliament, but a right. It is 
the only means of defence left her, and it is a potent one in guarding her in- 
terests. The Irish members as it were, are so many thorns constantly irritat- 
ing the "body politic " by sturdy strife, hence nothing would give greater satis- 
faction to the members of the Government than to have Ireland represented 
only by their friends the Orangemen. Mr. Redmond is said to be the most 
expert leader in Parliament, and seldom fails in carrying his point. The Irish 
members are as a riile speakers, and expert in what is termed "Parliamentary 
law," which is based more on the ruling of Irish parliaments than on English 
authority. 

On the other hand the average English member is hesitating in stating his 
case and generally ignorant of the rules to direct his action. 

Therefore, the Irish members are generally able to maintain themselves 
in an advantageous position so long as their rights are respected by the pre- 
siding officer. 

By the terms of the "Union" which were offered for Ireland's advantage, 
she was to have been governed by the same laws as the English people. 

But this was ignored, as was many another British pledge, and since the 
"Union" Ireland has been governed either by martial law or by special 
Parliamentary legislation, so that every measure coming before the body has 
required close and constant supervision on the part of the national mem- 
bers. Within the space of this communication I cannot go to greater length 



Present State of Ireland 387 

than to make the general statement, that there is no interest in Ireland which 
does not require the protection only to be gained by the closest attention of the 
national members. 

Another complaint, and one coupled with the claimed necessity for absence 
from Parliament, is the boycotting of England, as if the absence of its mem- 
bers were necessary to induce the Irish people to revive their own industries. 

For nearly two hundred years the Irish have neglected their own industries. 
No less is it to-day, as there is scarcely a first-class shop in Dublin free from 
signs indicating the English manufactures on sale. This would not be the 
case if the greater portion of the people did not desire to be seen clothed in 
English goods from the hat to the shoes, as if in token of their respectability, 
and with the women this desire seems even more marked. Some one hundred 
and twenty-five or thirty years ago, the hats, shoes, glassware, books, and 
many other products of Irish industry were chiefly used in this country and in 
other portions of the world outside of England and Ireland. It was then a 
complaint that the Irish people of means preferred the products of England, 
what we now term shoddy, to a better article produced at home. The poor 
people, on the contrary, at that time made for their own use almost everything 
needed for their wearing apparel. 

But for the neglect of their own industries by those termed the better class 
of Ireland, England could never have destroyed the former prosperity of 
the country. It is time for a large proportion of the Irish people to realize 
the truth, that seeking sympathy and aid for the condition now existing in the 
country can accomplish nothing. The industries of Ireland can never be 
again established until the Irish people themselves create the demand in their 
own country by making the sacrifice as to some temporary inconvenience. 

The Irish people are in the position of the country man in one of the fables 
of ^sop, who wasted his time in an appeal to Hercules to lift his cart out of 
the rut, instead of putting his own shoulder to the wheel. 

So soon as any attempt is made in Ireland to boycott English goods or 
revive Irish industries, the necessity will be made the greater for the National 
members to be in Parliament to protect the interests of their country. Noth- 
ing would be easier, if there existed no opposing force, than for the English 
Government to crush out by special legislation any attempt to oppose her 
interests by the revival of Irish industries. 

The present state of Ireland is indeed deplorable, and the discouragement 
due to the unnecessary delay on the part of the government in improving the 
condition is almost unbearable. But, in comparison with the squalid destitu- 
tion and almost hopeless extent of the stiffering which did exist some thirty 
years or more ago when I first began an investigation, there has been a rad- 
ical change for the better ; a change to an extent scarcely to be realized by any 
one who has not been a close observer. 

It is true that Home Rule has not been gained, but nothing can be shown 
to prove it was possible to have acquired it by any other available method, 
nor does the fault-finder venture to make any claim for physical force, the 
impracticability of which at the present time is proved from the fact it has not 



388 Incidents of my Life 

been resorted to by its advocates. Nothing has ever been granted to Ireland 
by England from any philanthropic motive. No better course seems available 
than the one now pursued, and until the majority decides on a change the 
present organization should receive the unquestioned support of every man 
wishing well to Ireland, and who is able to put aside his own personal jealous 
individualities for the good of his country. 

Constant agitation in keeping the affairs of Ireland ever prominent and in 
obstruction to English interests has accomplished much, and the continued 
worry will necessitate the granting of more for the benefit of Ireland. Public 
opinion in England has to be formed by educating the people into some 
knowledge of Irish affairs. The dense ignorance which has existed among 
a large number, if removed, might influence many and develop a friendly 
spirit to the advantage of Ireland. 

It is within range of possibility to convince the most prejudiced that the 
granting of full self-government to Ireland would be to England's interest, 
and the boon to be necessary for the future welfare of England, Scotland, and 
Wales. John Bull is opposed by nature to all change, but he is most sagacious 
as to his own interest, and in time he will realize the need of Home Rule both 
for Ireland and Great Britain. I am convinced from my own observation that 
there is a great change going on in England. There is much less ignorance, 
with an increased desire to have justice done Ireland. I care not for the 
incentive if the end is gained, be it from self-interest or from the desire to be 
relieved of a constant worry which Ireland is now becoming to England. 

No one can truthfiilly deny the fact that the Irish National members of 
Parliament have accomplished much in educating the English people to the 
present condition of advance. But time is necessary to remove the prejudices 
of centuries. He who is not willing to enlist for the war, who is easily dis- 
couraged, or who has any doubt as to the final success of the Irish in gaining 
self-government, had better turn his attention to some other interest and take 
no part in the political movement. 

Fortunately we are not all alike. Irish matters have been of daily interest 
for me during the past sixty years and each disappointment has but stimulated 
me, so far as lay within my power, to increased effort. I never was better 
satisfied than at present as to the progress made, and equally as to the manage- 
ment of both the political and financial affairs of the party. Every man seems 
to be in the right place and doing his duty. I never was more certain that 
Ireland must have Home Rule in the near future, since it has become a neces- 
sity for England's future prosperity. In addition a repeal of the Union must 
follow if Ireland is to have the management of her domestic affairs. Total 
separation from England at the present time is impossible, but with Home 
Rule and repeal of the Union, it is possible for Ireland to become again most 
prosperous and in peacefvil relation with Great Britain. The future must take 
care of itself. 

Thomas Addis Emmet. 

This letter would seem to have been one of the most important I have 



Correspondence 389 

ever written to influence public opinion on the Irish question. Among 
a number of communications I received in relation to it I present the 
following, the writers of which I know sufficiently well to feel assured 
they had no desire to flatter, should they have erred in judgment. I 
believe I possess in old age as little self-conceit as the weakness of human 
nature will admit, and I print these letters as an individual feature, as 
part of my history and with no other feeling than one of gratification 
in having accomplished something, as I hope, for the benefit of a cause 
which has been identified to such a degree with my life's work. 

St. Colman College, Fermoy [Ireland], 

nth July, 1908. 
Dear Dr. Emmet; 

I thank you most cordially for the newspaper cutting of your printed 
letter to the Irish World. It is one of the most thoughtful and admirable 
letters, or rather reviews of the whole Irish agitation, I have ever read. It 
is an independent, unprejudiced, scholarly, and statesmanlike appreciation of 
the Irish question through its various phases. It can not but do much good 
to the National Irish cause. The Irish Party have not been able to accom- 
plish up to the present everything we have a right to get, but it has accom- 
plished very much, and would have done more, if we were free from faction 
[generally influenced by personal or miserable sectional feeling]. We are, 
as a people, improving in our sense of the all importance and necessity of 
National Union. The latest achievement of Parliamentary action is the 
University Bill, from which much good is expected, if it passes into a law 
as now approved in Committee. 

I have brought home with me a great admiration of all I saw in New 
York and Boston, and I shall never forget the kindly and generous hospi- 
tality extended to us. 

Believe me yours most faithfully and thankfully, 

»i« Robert Browne, 

Bishop of Cloyne. 

The following is from an old friend : 

"Irish World," New York, 

June 24, 1908. 
My dear Doctor Emmet : 

I want to congratulate you very heartily on your admirable letter which 
you kindly furnished me for publication in this week's Irish World. In all 
honesty I venture to say that it is the ablest and the most practical utterance 
on the Irish question that I have read in any book or heard from any mouth 
on either side of the Atlantic. I have had a high appreciation of your ability, 
for long years back; but your great letter, of this week, raises you, in my judg- 
ment, above all the able men on either side of the Atlantic who are devoting 
their services to the upbuilding of Ireland. In saying this, I would not de- 
tract an iota from John Redmond or John Dillon, or any of the noble hearts 



390 Incidents of my Life 

who are devoting their lives to the uplifting of Ireland. But I speak to you 
as I feel and as my judgment and conscience dictate. May God bless you and 
long preserve you to continue the good work! 

I am, my dear Dr. Emmet, sincerely yours, 

Patrick Ford. 

In my own judgment the most important portion of this letter 
relates to the gaining of a satisfactory degree of Home Rule for Ireland 
by the only method which now seems feasible. 

Some years ago while in London, on my returning home, I visited 
the House of Commons where an important discussion was expected on 
Irish affairs, and the late departure of the steamer train left me several 
hours to avail myself of the opportunity. Before the regular order of 
business for the day was entered upon some member asked that per- 
mission might be granted to one of his constituency in Wales, and so 
far as I could understand the motion, to sink a shaft on his estate to 
determine the presence of coal. At once some wiseacre was on his feet 
to enquire if the interest of the Government had been provided for, in 
case the precious metals were found. He was informed of the impossi- 
bility of such an occurrence, and that the law provided for such a con- 
tingency. Notwithstanding the explanation, at every turn came up 
the same enquiry, — ^'But in case the precious metals were found, etc., 
the Government interest must be protected, etc." I heard this gone 
over to an empty house, until I was obliged to leave, and apparently 
no progress had been made towards gaining the permission. 

That such a case was not settled by some local authority and that 
the business of a great country like England could be brought to a 
standstill in Parliament for hours, satisfied me, with subsequent investi- 
gation, that the whole system and the general management of Imperial 
affairs needed a radical change. It convinced me that England and 
Wales stood in need of Home Rule for the management of their local 
government. 

Subsequently, when preparing the first edition of my work, Ireland 
under English Rule, published in 1903, and with the recollection of this 
case impressed upon me, I wrote at the beginning of Chapter XI of the 
first volume — "The system which has been developed in the United 
States of leaving to each State the management of its own domestic 
affairs is, as a whole and notwithstanding many defects, more conducive 
to the welfare and happiness of the greater number of people than any 
other, under which all classes have the right of franchise. With such a 
form of government and with repeal of the present fraudulent 'Union' 
with England, Ireland would in a few years teem with prosperity and 
a contented people." I have frequently given public expression to my 



Home Rule 391 

views as to the need of Home Rule for Great Britain as well as for 
Ireland, in different open letters written by me for public consideration. 
More recently I have done so in the second edition of Ireland under 
English Rule, in the second volume, page 281, and I there quote from 
the letter we have just been considering. 

Scotland is the only prosperous portion of Great Britain and the 
condition of Ireland in comparison is deplorable. 

Nevertheless a large element of the Scotch people have for a con- 
siderable time been demanding Home Rule in the form of a Parliament 
or legislative body in Scotland to control affairs purely Scotch, And for 
years there has been a Scotch Home Rule Association in existence, sup- 
ported by many of the Scotch members of Parliament as well as by many 
other influential Scotchmen. We may add that Irishmen ought to be 
in strong sympathy with the Scotch movement for Home Rule, for the 
reason, if no other, that a great majority of the Scotch members sup- 
ported Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill, and that ever since the Scotch 
members have been staunch friends of the Irish party and its policy. 

No one who has given the subject the slightest thought or investi- 
gation can deny the existing necessity for a most radical change in the 
methods of the British Government. I have given this subject much 
thought and it seems the most important defects can be removed by 
Home Rule for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, with a written 
constitution as the most important feature, which a Supreme Coiurt 
shall interpret for the benefit of all and thus insure stability to the 
system; abolishing hereditary titles, with a radical change in the House 
of Lords, which may be allowed to retain its name, but the members 
should be elected by the people, and in other respects with power based 
somewhat on our United States Senate. 

These changes will correct the chief defects of the present system, 
which have existed as relics of feudal times. 

Some modification of the United States form of government has been 
adopted in all the British provinces, where self-government has been in 
operation, and has therefore been tested from an English standpoint, 

A radical change has been going on rapidly in Great Britain, but 
more particularly in England. The profound veneration which formerly 
existed for the nobility has disappeared, and that for royalty is to a 
great extent one of indifference, while the people are becoming more 
democratic in their views. The conservative element, which is so 
dominant a feature with the English people, may for a time preserve 
the form of being ruled by a king, but he will become more and more 
of a figurehead. Every other change I have forecast as a necessity 
will be in time brought about in England, and possibly in the near 



392 Incidents of my Life 

future, unless the coimtry becomes more prosperous. The number of 
unemployed persons in England is appalling and rapidly increasing. 

England can no longer prosper as a manufacturing country nor by 
her commerce alone, as she has ceased to be "Mistress of the Sea," for 
reasons which I cannot enter upon. The vinemployed, with a great 
proportion of the people now crowded in the towns, must in the future 
look to the cultivation of the soil for their support, and the Govern- 
ment will have to put them back again on the vast tracts of country 
once thickly populated, but now held by the wealthy for shooting 
purposes. 

England's condition has much in common with that existing in Ireland, 
but the Government has not yet appreciated for her own welfare that 
the need for moving the people from the large towns to the country is more 
urgent than the necessity existing in Ireland, as great as it is, for clearing 
the congested districts. In one instance, however, the people have 
become patient and tolerant from the siiffering of centuries, and possess 
an all-abiding faith in God's mercy; while in England, should the Godless 
masses, who are the denizens of the London sltmis and the manufacturing 
towns, ever rise in their might from starvation, the horrors of the French 
Revolution will be outdone in response to the brutal instincts which 
these people are supposed to possess by the world at large. 

The critical condition of England insures the fullest measure of 
Home Rule and future prosperity for Ireland. 

A plea for Home Rule to be established as a necessity in England, 
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland would be the only course against which 
the plausible objection of dismemberment of the Empire could no longer 
be urged. This plan is perfectly feasible and the only one which could 
be brought into operation without delay, after the English people under- 
stand the urgent necessity for its adoption. 

I have given this subject much thought and can claim to have origi- 
nated this solution of the difficulty in gaining Home Rule for Ireland, 
one perfectly feasible if the English people could be brought to realize 
the urgent necessity for its adoption. 

I have frequently given public expression to these views and in 
different letters written by me for the consideration of the public. More 
recently I have done so in the second edition of my work — Ireland under 
English Rule [vol. ii., page 261], where I have reproduced this letter and 
have advocated a Home Rule legislature for England, Wales, Scotland, 
and Ireland, by which England would be chiefly benefited. 

The fault finder will doubtless hold that in advocating the plan of 
Home Rule for each portion of Great Britain, the position of the Irish 
people will be compromised. This is not true. To a certain extent it 



Home Rule 393 

is of advantage to the Irish cause that the people of Great Britain shotild 
be educated to reaHze the principle of Home Riile and the advantages^ 
and thus aUay the opposition from ignorance. The Irish know- 
perfectly what they want, and what alone will again make them pros- 
perous, and they will accept no less. Therefore, advocating the principle 
of Home Rule for all, is not a willingness to accept what may be agreed 
upon, and as usual from an English standpoint, as a fitting measure in 
common. Any thought given to this subject can but make it apparent 
that with the diversity of interests, and with nothing existing in common 
between the great majority of the Irish people and other sections of 
Great Britain, it is not possible to f ormiilate any measure of Home Rule 
which would be equally conducive for the welfare of all. To bring about 
this needed change in the form of government is no longer one of ex- 
pediency, as something to be acceptable and in accord from an English 
standpoint, but, from necessity it must be what is needed for Ireland's 
futtire welfare, and Ireland must be the judge. It can not be claimed 
that anything was left undone from an English standpoint during the 
past centuries of misrule in Ireland, and certainly no one will hold that 
the result has been a success. England's future as a first-class power 
is in the balance; without a prosperous Ireland, and Ireland as a friend 
and ally, England must inevitably become a second- or third-rate power. 
It is possible for England, as the stronger power, yet to delay, notwith- 
standing Ireland now holds legally the balance of power, and is entitled 
to receive all she may demand short of dismemberment of the Empire. 
But in case of such a contingency there will be no outbreak in Ireland 
from the delay unless coercion be resorted to, as the people feel too 
certain of their future success. At least eighty per cent, of the Irish 
people are a unit in their demand for Home Rule, and history records 
no instance of the ultimate failure of any united people in gaining their 
purpose. 



Chapter XXVIII 



Issued the second edition of Ireland under English Rule, etc, after giving a year to its 
revision, and nearly the same length of time getting it through the press — Derived an 
important advantage in finally obtaining a good index — While writing the first edition, 
some fifteen years ago, I placed on record that in the near future a conflict would arise 
on some purely English measure, between the House of Commons and the House of Lords 
— The action of the House of Lords in throwing out the Budget confirms the prediction 
— The House of Lords has been but consistent as it has vetoed every bill passed by the 
House of Commons for the relief of Ireland during the past hundred years — But it did 
not become a "personal" matter until the interest of England was interfered with — Com- 
ment upon the changes of the past seventy -five years in this coimtry, from a life of simple 
tastes to one of extravagance and waste — The accumulation of gold in the past sixty years 
— Gold is the only permanent standard of value — We have had an inflation which was 
not one based on gold, but on something yet to be earned by the gradual development of the 
comitry — Inflation has encouraged a taste for speculation and extravagant living, based 
simply on credit — The cost of the Civil War was met by one third specie and two thirds 
credit — -In a state of prosperity the natural resources of the country are supposed to 
develop at the rate of ten millions of dollars a day, and the wealth of the country as a 
whole is supposed to increase at that rate, and long since the indebtedness of the war 
would have been absorbed if we had not developed the most extravagant government and 
people on the face of the earth— The expenses of living have naturally increased, stimulated 
by the existence of a tariff which enriches comparatively a few individuals under the claim 
of prosperity, while the great majority of the people are becoming impoverished — 
"Cheap money" is never a sign of prosperity — Money is as much of a product as wheat 
or any other commodity, and has its market price — A high rate of interest on a gold loan 
represents prosperity and permanent wealth — Coming conflict between labor and capital — 
Packing the Supreme Court, to give a factitious value to paper money issued by the United 
States, together with our tariff, are responsible for the extravagance now existing in every 
station of life — No country can prosper, and the people pay over twenty-five percent, of 
income as an indirect tax — We are paying more than .double that proportion — Cold 
storage; under the present system is a menace to both the purse and health of the peo- 
ple — -The only remedy for the high price of living is to place all articles of food on the 
free list, to be imported free of duty or tax — -Subject the trusts to the issue and record of 
a special permit tax and limit purchasing power of material for storage. 




URING the following spring, with the summer spent 
at Narragansett Pier, and the winter in Florida, I 
was engaged daily to some extent in getting Ireland 
under English Rule into shape for the second 
edition and in getting it through the press. More 
than the equal in contents of either volume was 
of entirely new material, and the remaining por- 
tion so changed or rewritten that it would have been wiser to have 
issued the whole as a new work. The work makes no claim to being a 
history of Ireland, as I had neither the historical material at hand nor 

394 



An Exhaustive Work 395 

the special training for such an undertaking. I could have repeated in 
my own words the content of so-called history, as all others have done, 
but I followed an entirely different plan, of far more use for educational 
purposes, in showing the result of England's misrule, and as of neces- 
sity my knowledge was limited, I have used what contemporary writers 
have placed on record and so far as possible have given the Irish and 
English version, and tried when it could be done to prove my case on 
English testimony. I used no quotations at second-hand without having 
the original text in my possession for verification. The result has been 
that I thus accumulated a greater amount of valuable information as a 
book of reference than any other writer has succeeded in doing. 
Moreover, the work contains as complete an index as was ever issued, 
since it is believed to be with cross-references an exhaustive one. As 
all that a writer had placed on record in relation to any given subject 
is quoted, word for word, the reader has placed within his reach the 
material contents, winnowed out from what would constitute a larger li- 
brary relating to Ireland than exists anywhere, in public or private hands. 
This work has extended over many years, and as I have often had no use 
for many works I have consulted, after I had verified the quotation, they 
have been resold when purchased, or returned when borrowed or hired, 
so that my library contains but a small portion of the works I have con- 
sulted. The same course was followed in relation to hundreds of books 
or pamphlets which were rejected from being of doubtful value, or con- 
taining nothing which could be utilized. The mode of arrangement of the 
material and the full quotations thus render the work both original and 
unique. Throughout the volumes I placed at the head of each chapter, 
and elsewhere, a terse extract from some writer to catch the eye, and 
more likely to be remembered than if simply read and passed over in 
the text. For instance, showing the necessity for Home Rule, that a 
people may form a government best suited to their wants, the following 
would always be remembered: 

For a good government a nation forms its institutions as a shell-fish forms 
its shell, by a sort of slow exudation from within which gradually hardens as an 
external deposit, and must therefore befitted to the shape of that which it invests 
and protects. Aubrey de Vere. 

Her [Ireland] virtues are her own — her vices have been forced upon her. 

Robert Holmes. 



A people without a language of its own is only half a nation. 

Thomas Davis. 



396 Incidents of my Life 

When Englishmen set to work to wipe the tear out of Ireland's eye, they 
always buy the pocket-handkerchief at Ireland's expense. 

Col. Edward Saunderson, M. P. 

[While an Orangeman, Col. Saunderson was in sympathy with his native 
country.] 

In a climate soft as a mother's smile, on a soil fruitful as God's love, the 
peasant mourns. Thomas Davis. 

God made the land, and all His works are good ; 
Man made the laws, and all they breath'd was blood; 
Unhallow'd annals of six hundred years: 
A code of blood, a history of tears. 

(Unknown author.) 

These poor people [the Irish] have been accustomed to as much injustice 
and oppression from their landlords, the great men, and all those who should 
have done them right, as any people in that which we call Christendom. 

Oliver Cromwell, 1649 — Motley's Life of Gladstone. 

Few would be likely to doubt Ireland's just cause of complaint, after 
seeing Cromwell's endorsement. 

When writing this work many years ago and as printed in the first 
edition, as well as the second, just issued, I predicted the present condition 
of affairs in England, caused by the recent action of the House of Lords 
in rejecting the Budget [vol. i., 278 — first edition, 1903]: 

" As a rule the House of Commons has been indifferent to Ireland's welfare, 
and whatever action has been taken by that body was directed chiefly to hold- 
ing Ireland by the throat. Yet at times there were individuals with the fore- 
thought of statesmen, who laid aside their British prejudices against the Irish 
people, and made honest effort in the House of Commons to right the wrongs 
attending the misgovernment of that unhappy country. Such efforts, having 
passed the House of Commons, were almost invariably defeated by the action 
of the House of Lords, as the members of this body have never assented will- 
ingly to the passage of any measure relating to Ireland unless it were a Coer- 
cion bill or some provision detrimental to the welfare of the country. 

"In truth it may be held that the Lords of England for several hundred 
years past have been responsible directly or indirectly, for the greater part of 
Ireland's suffering, and have been generally the direct cause of the misgovern- 
ment of the country, as the head of the Ministry was generally taken from 
that body. At one period the House of Lords was a powerful organization, 
as it represented the wealth, education, and political influence of the country 
as well as the office-holders, who constituted a class almost entirely'- composed 
of their impecunious relatives. But they have long lost the blind reverence of 
the people, and as constituted at present it would be difficult to conceive of a 
more useless appendage to the body politic than the English House of Lords. 



Collision with House of Lords Predicted 397 

The Lords no longer represent more than their own personal interests and those 
of their kinsmen, the Irish landlords. Moreover, they have long since become 
blind to the fact that their course of action must surely lead to their own 
elimination. No one can better recognize the drift of public opinion than a 
stranger travelling through the country, especially if he judiciously seeks for 
information from the people about him. This the writer has frequently done, 
and he is convinced that a great change in public opinion has "taken place in 
England during the past thirty years. Her late Majesty, from living an 
exemplary private life, held the respect of the people during her lifetime and 
was succeeded by Edward VII; but for the future no one can do more than 
offer a conjecttire. It is evident, at least, that the great veneration for royalty 
and nobility that formerly existed does not exist in England to-day. As re- 
gards the House of Lords, the indications are clear that sooner or later it will 
come into serious collision with some action of the House of Commons, not 
connected with the interests of Ireland, when the wish of the people will be quickly 
asserted. After some revolutionary movement the House of Lords will cease 
to exist, or will remain as a figurehead without the power of doing harm to 
itself or the country." 

No one living at the present time, save those who have long completed 
their life's work, can realize the extent of the revolution which has taken 
place in this country during the past seventy-five years, the period of 
time my personal remembrance and experience would embrace. 

The transition has been from a simple life in the country for the 
majority and one of general thankfulness and recognition to God for His 
blessings, to one of general inflation, discontent, unrest, and agnosticism. 
This change has taken place in the quest of wealth ; which always stimu- 
lates a desire for more, and for the gratification of artificial wants which 
far exceed the possibility of attainment. There w'as formerly, certainly, 
more contentment and absence of complaint, and at the time when a 
laboring man in the country could support on fifty cents a day a family 
which, in time, was always a large one. Twenty -five thousand dollars 
was a competency, on the interest of which one could then supply every 
reasonable want for a moderate sized family. I have often questioned if 
I were better off, when, as a surgeon, I could receive for two hours' work 
in the performance of some surgical operation, nominally more than my 
father as a professor in the University of Virginia could earn from his 
laborious work in a year! 

Within the past sixty years the amount of gold accumulated in the 
world, the only true standard of value, has increased about two thirds, in 
addition to the amount obtained since the creation of the world. 

The value of gold, as the standard, has remained unchanged but 
the increase in quantity not absorbed in developing the resources of the 



398 Incidents of my Life 



country has naturally caused a certain degree of depreciation in the 
value of other products, while the seeming value of all tokens of credit 
represents really an inflation. 

Certainly the sudden addition of twice the amount of gold previously 
in circulation could not double the value of a horse, for instance, but his 
value would thereby be reduced to one half according to a gold standard, 
while to purchase him would require twice as much or more in the nominal 
value of any token of credit, so that half the supposed value at least is 
evidently represented by an inflation. 

The great increase of gold in the country would not be sufficient in 
itself to accoimt for the present condition, if it had been needed for 
establishing new sources of wealth for the country at large. All the gold 
which remains unproductive as idle capital inflates the nominal value of 
all credit tokens not based upon it, the latter thereby losing more than 
half its earning power, as shown in the reduction of the rate of interest 
for its use. Hence the gradual increase in the apparent cost of living as 
the purchasing power is diminished. 

With the advent of our fearful Civil War when gold and all securities 
were held to have increased three hundred per cent, in value, and when the 
credit of the Government stood at the same figures, there v\-as certainly 
no increase in wealth, but a depreciation from inflation to 33J per cent. 
on the dollar, according to a gold standard based on the credit or purchas- 
ing power of the Government securities. The discover}^ of gold and the 
great indebtedness incurred by the Government to meet the expenses of 
the war, are the two sources of the enormous, but factitious increase of 
wealth in this country. This supposed increase of value I believe to be 
but an inflation due to the loss of credit, and this has caused the great 
increased price of labor, stimulated by a prohibitive tariff. 
®' Necessarily, the expenses of living have steadily advanced and have 
more than doubled within the past ten years. The evil consequences 
produced by the sudden and great increase of gold, found in different 
parts of the world, would have been far more serious, at least in this 
country, had it not been held in check by the rapid increase of popula- 
tion. The increase was caused by the great famine in Ireland, and the 
forced emigration, from different causes, to this country from all portions 
of the earth. This emigration, in quest of employment and of support, 
necessitated a more extended cultivation of the soil, and this has saved 
for a time the country from bankruptcy and the full evil effects of the 
tariff, and may continue so long as we are exporters of breadstuffs. 

The census of the country for several decades would seem to indicate 
ihat the natural increase of wealth, in the development of the countr3^ 
tas been about ten millions of dollars a day, and this increase alone 



Fictitious Wealth of Country 399 

represents the true wealth of the country, which has been earned as a 
product of labor, and accumulated over and above our expenses of living. 

The Civil War, in my opinion, was fought on an acknowledgment of 
indebtedness representing one third credit and two thirds "water" (in a 
financial sense) , and I believe, for a fair valuation, the claimed wealth of 
the country must be reduced to the same standard, taking gold as the 
basis. This inflation and high price of living will exist from an unnecessar- 
ily high tariff, and until the resources of the country have been sufficiently 
developed to create new values, for paying off our Federal, State, and 
individual indebtedness, nearly all of which has yet to be earned as we 
have been living on credit to a great extent. I claim that two thirds of 
the supposed wealth of the country is fictitious. Money is as much of a 
commodity as cotton, tobacco, or wheat, and if the country were in a 
healthy condition of prosperity every dollar of capital cotild be employed 
in active development of the resources of the country. Experience has 
taught that where capital can all be employed in creating new values, 
the rate of interest would be seven or eight per cent, or higher, as the 
profit on such enterprises would average sufficient compensation to the 
operator to justify such rates for its use. The condition of speculation 
is apparently the same but is not so. Speculation is creating a fictitious 
value where there is no demand for development. When there exists in 
amount two or three times more of the "circulating medium" called 
money than can be actively employed, the fact is indicated by the de- 
crease of rate to be obtained for its use. "Cheap money" is never an 
indication of prosperity for the people at large but a sure indication of 
inflation, and is always an incentive for speculation. Under these cir- 
cumstances the wealth of the country passes into the hands of compara- 
tively a few individuals, the wealthy become richer and the poor more 
impoverished. 

But let us return to a consideration of the general indebtedness of 
the country, which, as I have stated, unless new sources of wealth be 
developed, the amount of our indebtedness will ultimately be repudiated 
to a great extent. Having spent what had yet to be earned, and from 
inflation, if we pay our debts in full it will be at the rate of two dollars 
for one at least. 

The increment earned by labor and the sale of products we do not 
need for our own support, as exports are paid for in gold by other coun- 
tries, represent a tangible increase of wealth. This development of 
wealth can only be gained from the soil, and by reducing our expenses 
and extravagances about two thirds below our present average. 

We may have already reached a turning-point, since cultivation of the 
soil can alone permanently maintain the wealth of any people, and at this 



400 Incidents of my Life 

time the aggregate of our agricultural products seem to be less. With the 
most extravagant government in the world for Federal, State, and city; 
with the most exacting tariff ever devised for increasing the wealth of 
those already wealthy and for pauperizing the mass of the people ; with the 
greater portion of the people living beyond their means ; with the growing 
dissatisfaction among the laboring classes, to hasten the coming strife 
between capital and labor, while the purchasing power of the price of 
labor is rapidly decreasing ; and as the people of the country are crowding 
into the towns for the gratification of newly-acquired tastes, we must 
become less and less a self-sustaining people, and consequently with 
anything but an encouraging outlook for the future if our crops fail. 

I have seen in my life, and the first instance was one of my earliest 
recollections, when the credit of this country from inflation suddenly 
collapsed after the failure of the United States Bank, then chartered by 
the State of Pennsylvania. It had originally been the bank of the United 
States administration and for many years was considered to be the equal 
in standing of either the Bank of England or France, but finally from 
political motives, the then-existing administration withdrew its deposit 
and refused to renew the charter which was then obtained from the State 
of Pennsylvania, without proper protection against speculation with its 
funds. 

For a time there was an absolute loss of value to all property, specie 
disappeared, and the necessities of life could only be obtained by barter, 
and potatoes, butter, poultry, and other products became in the coimtry 
the chief circulating mediums. 

With a high tariff and with the great cost of living, our people will 
rapidly leave the country as soon as the ctdtivation of the soil fails to 
furnish a supply sufficient to meet the demand and the emigration will be 
to Canada, Mexico, and to wherever the expenses of living are found to 
be less than in this country. Then as a natural sequence, unless new 
sources of industry be developed, with the decrease of population will 
come a loss of purchasing power in the supposed value of all property, and 
the people will be forced, after bankruptcy, to return to simpler tastes 
and to a simpler mode of living. In short, with a country unequalled 
in its natural resources, we have been most prodigal in our efforts to 
destroy the value of our inheritance. 

Two great political crimes have been perpetrated in this country, and 
we will be fortunate if in a hundred years from the present time we have 
escaped dismemberment, from the little consideration given to the diver- 
sity of interest in such a vast extent of country, and where so little 
thought has been bestowed on any other interest than that of political 
gain. The first step leading to the present condition is due to packing the 



High Tariff Detrimental 401 

Supreme Court bench, a political measure as I have stated, and in defiance 
of the Constitution, to declare paper money issued on credit possessed 
the legal value of specie. So long as our credit was supposed to rest on a 
specie basis, on the public lands and other tangible property, a healthy 
check was maintained in limiting the expenses of the Government and in 
bringing about the necessity for economy to pay off the indebtedness 
incurred from the Civil War. By giving to paper money, but a token of 
indebtedness, a fictitious value of specie, we have spent, or are spending, 
the increment only to be gained by a gradual development of the country 
and by the labor of generations yet unborn. 

Even a more detrimental effect, in checking the development of the 
country, must result from the present prohibitive tariff, with which we 
are brudened under the pretext of developing our industries. If the 
industries of our country are developed by the present tariff, the enormous 
gain benefits but a few individuals, while this profit is always exacted 
from the people as an indirect tax. 

Nothing is more firmly established as a question of political economy 
than the fact that no people can prosper and pay over twenty -five per- 
cent, of their income by indirect taxation. I have no means of obtaining 
the exact ratio now existing in this country, but I believe it to be much 
nearer seventy -five than fifty percent. The benefit from a high tariff in 
developing the industries of a country for the betterment of the people at 
large, is fallacious. 

In consequence of a "protective" tariff, the price of quinine to the 
consumer during the Civil War was at the rate of five dollars and more an 
ounce. In Mr. Cleveland's administration, the rate was lowered so that 
the cost was reduced to about seventy cents an ounce, and it has been 
recently claimed that quinine can be produced at less than fifty cents an 
ounce and pay a good profit ! As an industry, the production of quinine 
was undoubtedly brought about and established as a most profitable 
undertaking for the producer, represented by two or three firms of 
manufacturing chemists who, in consequence, contributed liberally for 
political ptuposes. But will any one, not interested in the business, hold 
that the people at large were benefited by paying ten times the price it 
would have cost if it had not been "protected"? 

The more equally the wealth of a country is distributed, the more 
prosperous will be the people and the greater will be the increase gained 
in the permanent wealth of the country, by establishing a greater num- 
ber of enterprises for the development of its resources when every dollar 
will be earning its interest. In the handling of capital there is a limit to 
an individual's earning power for benefiting the State. One hundred men 
in business with one hundred thousand dollars each, can gain more perma- 
26 



402 Incidents of my Life 

nent wealth for the country, and will pay a larger proportion of taxes than 
one man could possibly accomplish with ten millions at his service. The 
greater the wealth of an individual the greater the amount of unproduc- 
tive capital will he hold, from his inability to handle it to advantage and 
the less taxes will he pay in proportion. The time will come and it may 
have a beginning in this country, when the amount of wealth to be held by 
any individual will be limited by taxation, for the benefit of the country 
at large; and on the same principle as it is claimed all unimproved pro- 
perty should be taxed at a higher rate than that which yields an income 
and pays a proportionate tax. It is the rich man who does not need the 
increase who will hold unimproved property at a nominal taxation, until 
it gains value through the enterprise of others and he, having capital, 
should be forced to develop a value without delay, that it may pay a tax 
and thereby lessen the burden borne by others, and who cannot be 
benefited by the profit gained on the unimproved property of the rich. 

As a Democrat, I am on general principles in favor of free trade. But 
reflection has convinced me unrestricted free trade can only be beneficial 
for a purely agriculttual people. The first wealth of all people must 
come from cultivation of the land, and the profit gained from exporting 
the products, over and above that needed for the maintenance of the 
people, is clear gain paid in gold or its equivalent. With increase of 
population, and for investment, a need soon exists for the development of 
some industry, probably to utilize some raw material at hand. Then a 
protective tariff may be needed, but it should never exceed ten per cent, 
as an indirect tax. On the other hand, the industries of a country can 
never benefit the .people at large by any tariff when it is necessary to 
import both bread-stuffs and raw material, and in time general poverty 
must be the result among the laboring classes. 

What I have written may not interest the many, but it cannot be 
taken as the croaking of an old man, for I have given these and kindred 
subjects far more thought than many would to any subject so foreign to 
their relation in life. But all sources of information, subjects for thought, 
are of interest to me, and the deductions crudely drawn as they are may 
prove of interest to some of my readers. 

The advantages and disadvantages in connection with the system of 
cold storage have been recently much discussed, and the question at the 
present time is being legally investigated as to how far the members of 
the trust have combined, from time to time, for the purpose of increas- 
ing the price of food. When the system was first put into operation it 
was claimed that, by means of it, no scarcity of any article of food could 
ever occur, and that the direct effect would be to insure moderate prices 
at all seasons. In this respect it has utterly failed. 



Cold Storage 403 

I can only speak with authority in regard to my experience as a 
physician, from a sanitary point, as to the effect of cold storage on all 
food subjected to the process. 

I am satisfied the existence of the cold-storage system adds greatly 
to the cost of living. The high tariff affords the opportunity for the 
packers to control for their advantage the price of every article of food 
passing through their hands, and this is done by causing the supply to be 
always less than the demand. In the beginning it was claimed cold 
storage would prove one of the greatest boons for the people, as it would 
be the means by which the poor could be supplied with many of the 
luxuries of life at a moderate price in all seasons, and that a scarcity of 
food could never occur. No safeguard was made, however, to protect the 
people from the greed and dishonesty of the dealer, while I believe 
experience will demonstrate that after a very limited period, with the 
exception of beef, every food-product becomes of little value, from the 
loss of its nutritive properties, long before it is generally allowed to reach 
a market, and much of it is then in a condition where its use is detrimental 
to health. 

Having to spend more than the half of every year from home, on 
account of my health, I have given much thought to the subject of cold- 
storage food, which, although always of .the best quality, had to be the 
chief reliance at the hotels where I have lived. From my own personal 
observation I have demonstrated that when I have lived on cold-storage 
food alone, I have steadily lost weight and was never free from a con- 
dition of mild blood poisoning, shown by loss of appetite and strength, 
with constant irritation of my stomach and bowels. In my judgment as 
a physician, this food could not fiurnish the material necessary for repair 
of tissue in the human body and its use might arrest or retard the growth 
of a child, and it probably never fails to do so. Only those in robust 
health escape the deleterious consequences and they probably only for a 
limited time. 

What then must be the result from a sanitary point, with the poor, and 
those of limited means, who are tempted to purchase the worthless stuff 
put on the market at a somewhat reduced rate to get rid of it? Others, 
however, must decide as to when the use of this food becomes detrimental 
to health. I will simply claim from my own personal experience, that it 
is worthless for food, as it has lost all its nutritive properties. The 
time has come when the people should be protected from a system of no 
benefit to any one but the packers, who thrive as parasites on the body 
politic. 

But little poultry or game comes on the market from cold storage 
before the bones of the legs and some portion of the breast-bone become 



404 Incidents of my Life 

discolored and dark, together with a portion of the flesh in contact. 
This undoubtedly is evidence of decay, although putridity does not 
exist. Whenever I have eaten any of this discolored flesh or of that 
closely connected, through inadvertency or to judge of its effect, I have 
been made ill, and several times I have suffered seriously. 

In accord with my experience the health-giving properties of an egg 
are so soon destroyed by a reduced temperature that it should never be 
put in cold storage; and the process of decay and loss of its nutritious 
properties begins as soon as air can pass through the shell and come in 
contact with its contents. 

If the tip of the tongue be placed against the shell at the broad end 
of a freshly-laid egg a warm spot can be detected, and on opening the 
egg there will be found there a small clouded and partially detached 
portion, and so long as this warm spot can be found it is evidence that the 
egg is still viable, or has life properties — ^in other words that it is yet 
fresh enough to be hatched out as a chicken, and still possesses certain 
component properties on which its remarkable nutritive qualities depend. 

If an egg immediately after being laid could be supported standing 
on the small end and not subjected after to either extreme of temperature, 
its vitality could be thus maintained for a longer period than under any 
other ordinary circumstances. If in addition it could be placed in vacuo 
without injury to the shell, it would be thus possible to preserve the con- 
tents unchanged for an indefinite period. The exciting cause of putre- 
faction comes from a certain condition of the atmosphere, and is not due 
to the temperature, as in warm climates beef and other articles can be 
preserved by drying and without impairing the nutritive properties. As 
crude and imperfect as is the method of putting up canned food, the 
exclusion of air as far as possible is based on a scientific principle; while 
by the cold-storage system decay is not arrested unless the article be left 
frozen solid, and it is yet a question if extreme cold does more than to 
arrest a concomitant of decay, which is offensive to our senses when 
putrefaction is taking place. 

As soon as any egg becomes chilled through, and at a much more 
moderate temperature than is used in the cold-storage system, the warm 
spot I have described disappears, and the yolk settles down from the 
centre, to rest on the shell. Without being able to state as to the post or 
propter hoc, at the same time some change takes place in the properties 
of the shell so that it becomes pervious, and certain elements of the egg on 
which its nutritive qualities depend are lost, and air enters in the opposite 
direction to the interior. On the air coming in contact with the contents 
the process of deterioration begins, and soon it becomes valueless as an 
article of food, although it might be claimed to be still "sound." 



Remedy for High Cost of Living 405 

It is imperative for the benefit of the pubHc that without delay it be 
positively determined how long feach article can remain in cold storage 
without destroying its nutritive properties, or becoming a menace to 
health. Each article shotild bear a tag showing the time in cold storage, 
and this should be protected by a heavy penalty and be inseparable until 
it reaches the consumer. But as the lawyers will doubtless find a man has 
the right to keep his property in cold storage if he wishes, and there will 
always be fools enough to purchase, nothing can be done beyond making 
the effort to inform the purchaser as to the value of the article placed on 
the market. Yet there exists but one single remedy which will check dis- 
honesty and act automaticalty as it were, and that is to put all food- 
products on the free list, as the revenue at present from a protective 
tariff, probably, does not meet the expenses incurred in the effort to 
enforce it, and an undesirable industry is supposed to be protected. 

At Palm Beach I was charged seventy-five cents a dozen for fresh 
eggs and finally compromised on sixty cents, where ten cents would 
have been under other circumstances a clear gain, as the owner of the 
hens was at no expense. The price was claimed on account of the 
scarcity of eggs in New York, and yet on the same day I saw it stated in 
the Herald that by accident it had been found thirty-six millions of eggs 
were held in one single cold-storage plant in Jersey City, and no doubt 
the price of eggs in Florida, or elsewhere, will be quoted by the New York 
dealer as an evidence of their scarcity, and the necessarily high price in 
New York ! 

The cause of the great increase in the expense of Hving maybe discussed 
indefinitely without being able to arrive at any conclusion. The one 
important point is to supply the remedy, as the burden has become a 
grevious one for the majority of the people. The remedy is simple and 
the only one which will afford relief, if our rulers have any desire to lay 
aside party gain for the benefit of the people at large. 

Let our Republican Congress place every article of food on the free 
list and keep it there, and high prices must cease as soon as the articles 
needed can be brought to market. No combination could keep up high 
prices except for beef as the increase in price would stimulate the im- 
portation from all quarters until the supply would soon exceed the 
demand. Thus cause and effect would always regulate the price with 
a continued tendency to lower the cost so long as there existed a supply, 
and the importer could afford to undersell the market price. 

This is so simple a matter and so self-evident in the result that there 
would be nothing more to be stated if it were possible to regulate the 
action of the trusts. Possibly their action might be checked by requiring 
the issue and record of a special permit tax, limiting the purchasing power 



4o6 Incidents of my Life 

as to the quantity to be held in cold storage, as well as to the time when 
the special article of food in storage must be put on the market or de- 
stroyed, before its nutritive properties have been lost. It would be an 
easy matter for those familiar with the subject to arrange the details, and 
the only diffictdty will rest with enforcing the law. We Uve in a corrupt 
age, and the power of the trusts at the present time in this countrj^ cannot 
be realized, and it is impossible for the people to be protected until an 
honest effort be made to destroy their power. With the concentration 
throughout the country of the wealth and power in the hands of a 
comparatively few individuals the lust for greater gain has demorahzed 
the morals of the country. It is a cormnon expression that "money will 
accomplish anything" and that "every man has his price." Individuals 
may seem to be honest in private life, but as business men and members 
of corporations there seems to be no hesitation in corrupting, by bribery 
or favor, the official or individual to accomplish their purpose. Such a 
tendency has existed since the creation of man, but every indication 
seems to prove that this evil is steadily increasing at the present time. 



Chapter XXIX 



Maynooth College — Letter from the Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, as to the status of the young 
men educated there for the priesthood — An important letter — The Act of Union must be 
repealed before Home Rule could be attained for Ireland — From old age my life is now 
being narrowed down to a very limited field of usefulness — An account by T. P. O'Connor, 
M.P., describing a visit to me and my surroundings, on March i6, 1907 — He repeated his 
visit the day before Christmas, 1909, on his way to the steamer, accompanied by Michael 
J. Ryan, the National President of the United Irish League of America and the National 
Treasurer, Mr. Fitzpatrick of Boston — All old friends, and the visit was well timed as 
I was bringing my "Incidents" to a close at the end of the year 1909 — My Christmas 
Day was made all the brighter by the good news they brought me as to Irish affairs — On 
Christmas I received through the mail a Christmas card, as I had done for over twenty 
years, from a waif I had assisted as many years before — The reception of that card was 
the last incident connecting me with my professional work — No one can expect, after 
receiving in this world every evidence of prosperity, to be equally as fortunate in the 
next — On closing my work I have compared my remaining existence to a bubble, and 
with its collapse will end the story of my life. 



Ii 







Y last communication for the benefit of the public 
was in relation to a letter received from Dr. Browne, 
Bishop of Cloyne. Having been questioned several 
times of late in relation to the status of the young 
men educated at Maynooth for the priesthood, 
and in regard to their after relation with the Irish 
people, I wrote to the Bishop for information. His 
reply will prove of interest, since the subject in question has been mis- 
understood by many. (See Appendix, Note XHI.) 

Self-government for Ireland, which will necessitate a repeal of the odi- 
ous "Act of Union, " is near at hand. In fact, the action of the House 
of Lords, in their usurpation of power in connection with the "Bud- 
get, " insures a loss of veto on the acts of the House of Commons, and 
such action on the part of the Liberal party wiU be necessary for its own 
protection and it will prove to Ireland's profit. ■ 

There remains but one cloud to obscure the future of the Irish people, 
the failure to the present time in regaining the use of their native lan- 

407 



4o8 Incidents of my Life 

guage, and the great apathy existing with so many as to the importance 
of such an acquirement. 

The situation is covered by the legend on the seal of the Old Irish 
Federation of America, of which I was the president during its existence : 
'Now or Never; Now and Forever. " In my opinion the revival of the 
use of the Irish language at the present time is of greater importance than 
that of Home Rule. Nothing from the outlook at present can prevent 
the gaining of Home Rule, in some measure, to Ireland within the near 
future. But the kind of Home Rule, and as to how long the English 
Government will allow Ireland to hold it in the future depends entirely 
on how many of the Irish people acquire a knowledge of their native 
language in the near future which means unity and nationality. 

As England brought about the so-called Union by bribery, so will 
she at some future day destroy Home Rule in Ireland if it be to her 
interest and she should have the power to do so. History always re- 
peats itself. Nothing else but a complete revival in the use of the native 
language by the Irish people can furnish the necessary bond of union 
and weld all classes and interests into one common nationality; and 
this alone can furnish the power for resisting English corruption, through 
pride of country, in the preservation of her welfare. So long as the Irish 
are an English-speaking people, just so long will all Irish nationality 
remain inert, for the people at large and Ireland will continue, as she is 
at present, but a portion of West Britain ; just so long will she continue 
to clothe herself in the shoddy of English manufactories and seek to do 
so as a token of respectability. So long as English is the spoken lan- 
guage of the country, just so long will all her affairs be conducted by 
English influence and to England's profit. 

Thomas Davis, the poet and patriot of 1848, wrote: "A people with- 
out a language of its own is only half a nation. " "A nation should guard 
its language more than its territories; it is a surer barrier and a more 
important frontier than fortress or river. " 

I think I have a fair knowledge of the people in believing that while 
one might yield through want and need to terms of corruption made in 
English, he would be more likely to have his self-respect roused into resist- 
ance of the same if offered in Irish. The love, pride, and reverence held 
by the Irish people of sixty or seventy years ago for their native language 
at a time when it was generally spoken, I have never seen shown by any 
other people and consequently believe its possession would be a safe- 
guard to them. With Home Rule and an Irish Parliament, with its 
proceedings conducted in English, it would be nothing more than an 
appendage to the Imperial Parliament. But let the business be con- 
ducted entirely in the Irish language as it should be, not for the purpose 



Limited Field of Usefulness 409 

of concealment, but as the means of obtaining a dignified bond of union, 
and this would establish a pride of country which it would be difficult for 
England to corrupt. So long as English is the language of the country 
the people must remain in a state of slavery to English interests, and as 
in the past, open to corruption and bribery. 

Would to God that I cotild by words impress the Irish people with 
the importance to their future welfare, as I see it, of the position I have 
attempted to point out. After a lifetime passed by the writer in his 
efforts to benefit the Irish people, and with year after year passed as if 
the future was but the embodiment of a hope deferred, he now feels that 
his occupation will soon be gone, by Ireland gaining what her people 
have so long striven for. 

His advanced age necessitates that contingency under any circum- 
stances in the near future. His life is now narrowed down to a very lim- 
ited field of usefulness on account of his bodily infirmities, so that he is 
restricted chiefly to his library and the range of a single story in his 
residence. But so long as it is God's will to preserve his mental activity, 
his time will be fully occupied with literary work, which is a great source 
of enjoyment to him. One day must necessarily be but a counterpart 
of the preceding one ; there can occur nothing in the future but his death 
which would be of sufficient interest to the reader. As it would be 
unreasonable to expect him to place on record such an event, he may 
well leave this duty to some one else, and bring his " Incidents" to a 
close with the end of the year one thousand nine hundred and nine. 

It may be of interest to the reader to have an insight into my sur- 
roundings and the limited field of action to which I have become reduced 
in my old age. I cannot furnish a better sketch than the following from 
the pen of that brilliant speaker and litterateur, the Hon. T. P. O'Connor^ 
M.P., who has been a friend of many years standing. As I only wish 
to give the reader this information and show where I shall pass the re- 
maining portion of my life, I shall be excused from the charge of vanity. 
Mr. O'Connor wrote what at least he believed to be true and with no 
expectation of it coming to my knowledge, as I did not know that he 
had written it until over a year after, and then only by accident. 

A Visit to Doctor Emmet 

By T. P. O'Connor, M. P. 

[From the Irish Packet, March i6, 1907.] 

You all know who Dr. Emmet is. When Robert Emmet had been executed^ 
and after his release from prison, Thomas Addis Emmet sailed for America. 
There he joined the bar, became one of its leaders, and one of New York's 
most distingiiished and respected citizens, and to-day there stands in St. 



410 Incidents of my Life 

Paul's Churchyard, Broadway, in the very heart of the busiest part of New 
York, his monument, in grateful recollection of his virtues and his services. 
And to-day his namesake and descendant Thomas Addis Emmet, perpetuates 
his convictions, his lofty patriotism and his excellent character. 

Long before he was known to the world of Irish national struggle, Thomas 
Addis Emmet had become one of the glories and one of the most glowing lights 
of the medical profession. He came to New York, as he often told me, from 
Virginia with three hundred dollars in his pocket — just sixty pounds ; and he 
had to live or die. In a few years he had so far succeeded by sheer force of 
tremendous intellect that he stood at the very top of his profession; and his 
inventions and discoveries in the treatment of women's diseases have made him 
the best known man in the medical world of America, and one of the best 
known on the continent of Europe as well. He established a great woman's 
hospital; he was the man whom every woman who was troubled with any 
malady requiring the surgeon's skill consulted — in short, he became an 
international and national celebrity. 

Throughout it all he was an ardent lover of Ireland. No success in science, 
no splendor of social position, could make that burning love of Ireland, which 
he had inherited, lukewarm ; and when Parnell and the modern Irish movement 
came, Thomas Addis Emmet was one of the many eminent citizens of New York 
who threw themselves into the organization in America. With his tireless pen, 
with his open purse, with his brilliant position, by his regular attendance at 
every gathering— not merely the great public meetings, but the unseen, uncele- 
brated private committee meetings, — he gave an example to every man with 
Irish blood in his veins of enthusiasm, faith, and sacred sense of duty. His 
name alone, apart from anything, was a tower of strength to the movement ; 
but he was not satisfied without giving his precious time and energies as well. 

Then came division and dissension; and this man, already getting 
old, after a life of incessant toil for more than a half-century, abandoned his 
home, his great practice, and came over to Ireland to see if by his personal 
intervention he could do anything to bring back Ireland to unity and to 
strength. He failed; the hideous malady had not run its course, and he went 
back sadly; and before he went he met with an accident^ which permanently 
lamed him. He never complains, but it is a mark of the great sacrifice he was 
always ready to make for Ireland. 

This is the man at whose house in Madison Avenue I spent my first 
evening in New York seventeen years ago ; and he it was that made me realize 
what a gigantic movement we had in America. I had not seen him for years; 
and during my last trip to America (1907) every hour had been so filled that I 
could not get to him. At length it came to my last night in New York; and 
though I was really very fatigued, I felt that I could not leave America with- 
out paying my respects to this splendid servant of the Irish cause. So I went 
to his house in Madison Avenue. 

I found him in his study, with the leg lamed in Ireland supported on a 

» It will be seen elsewhere that his accident occurred during a previous visit, but the 
condition was very much irritated by the extra exertion necessary. 



Christmas Guests 411 

chair. There he was, surrounded by his books, his papers, his pictures, a some- 
what lonely old man, for his beautiful and charming wife, one of the most 
distinguished looking and beautiful mannered ladies I ever met in my life, has 
passed away, and his children are married or living in Europe. But the spirit 
of the old man, now nearly eighty, burns with undiminished flame. Not a 
word of complaint, of wail, even of depression. 

"And how is your mind? " I said. 

"As clear and as active as ever," he replied. "I write eight hours a day." 

And then he showed me some of his work. He is as marvellous for the ver- 
satility as for the depth of his powers. He is one of the greatest authorities on 
early American history. He knows every nook and cranny of the history of 
Ireland; he has read all the good literature of the world. He would probably 
have been a great man of letters if he had not been a great man of science. 
Never have I met a man whose mind appeared to me so direct, so full of prompt 
grasp, so ready. He showed me a book containing the account of a banquet 
which had been given him. It was not an Irish banquet, though there were 
plenty of Irishmen there ; it was a banquet of the representatives of all classes 
and creeds of the medical profession and given in New York ; and it was one 
long eulogy of him, as doctor, as historian, as patriot — above all, as a man, 
with nature's nobility marked on every gift of mind and character. 

And seated in that somewhat dimly lit and small room, amid those books, 
the silence of the room in strange contrast to that tumultuous and thunderous 
life of New York streets outside, I felt as if I were in the presence of some 
mediaeval figure long since counted among the blessed. For this old man still 
joyous and vigorous in the work of regenerating and freeing Ireland, cheerful, 
self -for getting, devoted, made all around him holy ground. And I in my 
heart worshipped and prayed at the shrine of our cause, which can produce 
such noble figures and such lovely lives. I told him that I would tell our 
people at home of this interview with him. He gave his modest and depre- 
cating laugh; but I had to tell it for his sake, and still more for theirs. 

I had fuUy completed my task, as I thought, with Mr. O'Connor's 
description, and had been congratulated, or at least I had congratulated 
myself, which meant more coming from myself, and I was going to 
write that I never expected to see the manuscript again until it was in 
print, when I had a pleasant surprise. 

"It was the night before Christmas, " or at least a few hours before 
Christmas, when I received an unexpected visit from three gentlemen 
for whom I have a great regard — T. P. O'Connor, M.P., Michael J. 
Ryan, and T. B. Fitzpatrick. 

Mr. O'Connor was on his way to the steamer, to sail early next 
morning, after having made a most successful tour through the country 
in the interest of the National cause of Ireland. He found me not an 
inch out of the way from the position where he had left me nearly three 



412 Incidents of my Life 

years before, and with every detail in my surroundings unchanged, and 
if he should attempt to write another account of his last visit, he would 
have to copy what he had already written. 

Mr. Ryan is the efficient National President of the United Irish 
League of America, and Mr. Fitzpatrick the National Treasurer, and 
our old friend who stuck by the Federation. The visit of these gentle- 
men gave a brightness to my Christmas which was unexpected, and all 
the more welcome from Mr. O'Connor's assurance as to the promising 
outlook for the future of Ireland. 

Then came a pleasing surprise on Christmas morning, which necessi- 
tates the telling of the story as the last incident connecting me with my 
professional life. 

Two days before the Christmas of 1869, a young woman, about 
twenty-three years of age, came into my office, with what I supposed 
from her appearance to be a large abdominal tumor, and I left her imtil 
the last, thinking the case would require a longer time than usual. 

I found she was near the time for her accouchement and said, " Wliy 
did you come to me, as I never attend such cases?" 

Her answer was that she was engaged, but not married; that she had 
left home several weeks before to obtain treatment for a supposed tumor, 
in hopes that she might be cared for in a large city without disgrace, which 
would break the heart of her father and mother. She had not seen any 
physician, but on inquiring had failed in finding any place where she 
thought she ought to go, and having spent all her money, she had been 
turned out of doors from the boarding-house where she had been stopping. 
After walking several hours without object, she happened to stop in front 
of my door to rest, and seeing my sign, which was weather-worn, she had 
come in to ask what she should do, expecting to find me an old man. 
It was evident she was truthful ^-nd worthy of all I could do for her, 
and as any other reputable member of the profession would have done 
under the circumstances, I set about helping her. I walked around with 
her to a moderate-priced boarding-house in Fourth Avenue, between 
Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets, kept by a woman I knew 
would be kind to her. She had a bundle of clothing with her, and needing 
only rest and food I left her, directing the woman keeping the house to 
see that she was provided with what might be needed for the child. 
On my return from church on Christmas Day I was told an urgent 
message had come for me a short time before, which I answered and 
was in time to aid her. She retained her room for three or four weeks 
until she fully recovered her strength, and had the happiness of looking 
after her baby. I then took her down to see Sister Irene, who a short 
time before had opened a Maternity Hospital and Orphan Asylum on the 



The Story of the Christmas Card 413 

corner of Washington Square and University Place, with apparently noth- 
ing but her prayers to establish her purpose. This was the origin of the 
present prosperous Catholic Foundling Asylum between Sixty-seventh 
and Sixty-eighth streets and near Third Avenue. I found the baby could 
be cared for at a moderate cost by Sister Irene, and the child was left 
there. I then wrote a letter very much to the point, and addressed to 
the young man to whom she was engaged, pointing out the necessity 
that the marriage ceremony should be performed immediately. I advised 
that he should seek employment at some distance from his present home, 
so that they could take the child with them and that after two or three 
years it could be taken back to see the grandparents, as if it were an 
unusually large child for its age. Moreover, the marriage could now 
be urged with the parents, as she had gotten rid of the tumor and should 
accompany him. She needed about eight dollars to get home. I gave 
her ten, and bade her good-bye. About two weeks after, a letter was 
left at my house, telling me she was married and they were on their v/ay 
to where they were to begin life, and at some distance, as I had advised, 
from her old home. She thanked me with great expressions of gratitude 
for what I had done for her, and particularly that I had made no attempt 
to find out who she was. 

They had been to Sister Irene and got the baby, which was in splendid 
condition, everything had been paid for and she enclosed the money 
in full for every cent I had expended for her. 

Every Christmas after I received a letter containing a little curl of 
hair, or a small bow of ribbon which the child had used, and finally 
came a Christmas card regularly every year, all mailed in New York. 
This occurred every year since the Christmas of 1870, until 1908, when, 
from the omission, I supposed she had died. But last Christmas, 1909, 
while I was writing and bringing this work to a close, a letter mailed in 
New York as usual was handed to me by one of my servants, con- 
taining a Christmas card, with the direction written in the same hand 
with which I had become familiar during the past thirty-nine years. 

There is but little difference in the experience of every practitioner 
of medicine, as all have had such cases coming under their care, and I 
can state I have never known an instance of a physician refusing aid to 
the unfortunate of this class ; however disreputable he might be otherwise, 
he has honored his calling by protecting the friendless. 

This case is to me one of special interest as the only instance I have 
ever known where the recipient has shown her gratitude during so long 
a period. And in closing an account of my Reminiscences, the reception 
of that Christmas card was, as I have stated, the last incident connect- 
ing me with my professional and life-work. 



414 Incidents of my Life 



About 1890, I attended St. Stephen's Church one Sunday, at the ten 
o'clock service, which hour had been for years my usual one, as being 
the most convenient for a busy man. Through that influence, the nature 
of which no one understands, but one I have several times experienced, 
I became conscious that I was being steadily gazed at by some one to 
the side of the church and a little behind me. On turning my head, 
I caught the eye of a woman past middle life, some fifty feet from me, 
and with whose face I was familiar, but I could not recognize her. Turn- 
ing suddenly, I caught her eye again fixed upon me ; soon I saw her with 
her eyes closed in deep devotion and from the nature of her devotion 
and mode of blessing herself, it was evident she was a devout Catholic. 
When I looked back again, she had disappeared and had probably 
changed her seat, as the service was not finished and evidently did so 
that I should not see her again. I waS curious to know who she was and 
on my way home it suddenly occurred to me that she was the waif I 
had helped some twenty years before. 

What brought her into the Catholic Chiurch I have no idea, for she 
was not a member when I knew her. She was so grateful for Sister 
Irene's care of her baby that possibly her appreciation of the service may 
have been the moving spirit. 

I am reluctant to write the last words in closing my work, where the 
act is de facto at the close of my life. As it must be done, these last 
words cannot be given in better relation than in some reference to old 
age, that it may brighten the prospects of those who have not yet 
reached that stage of life. 

Old age is generally made up of sorrow and unhappiness, and yet it 
rests with the individual to make it the brightest and most blissful 
portion of one's life. The thoughtless would deem themselves most 
fortunate to be left in full enjoyment of uninterrupted prosperity to the 
last. But sad indeed must the future be throughout all eternity for 
the individual whose faith had not been tested, while passing through a 
life of sunshine on earth as a butterfly; one whom God left to prosper 
by his own efforts and seemed to have forgotten! With the enjoyment 
of everything during life on earth, could more in justice be asked for in 
the next world? 

Nothing purifies the soul so much as the practice of self-denial in the 
proper spirit, or to suffer from sorrow or adversity, if accepted cheerfully 
and without repine as a test asked of our faith, based upon the justice 
and love of God. Flippant criticism would pronounce such views as 
being those of a fanatic, but with as little knowledge of the truth as 
whenever judgment is passed on any subject neither understood nor 
the incentive appreciated. Fanaticism is the acceptance of a belief at 



Closing Days of my Life 4^5 

all hazard, with no assurance as to the truth or authority. Nothing 
can be purer than purity itself nor truer than truth, so that a true and 
pure love of God can never be associated with fanaticism. 

So soon as we are able to accept the burden of old age, as an evidence 
of God's mercy in thus affording us the time and opportunity for show- 
ing our faith and love by accepting cheerfully our lot and without ques- 
tion, will we have begun our preparation for eternal life. 

There are many who regard themselves as unfortunate if they are 
not the recipient of good fortune at every turn. A moment's reflection 
should satisfy any one that at best we are as individuals only entitled 
to receive our due, yet, if this was general, how few in the world would 
be prosperous? No one can expect from merit to possess everything 
desirable in this world, and to receive in addition a full measure in the 
next. 

Old age is transient, and the period is at best of short duration, but 
as I have stated it lies entirely with the individual whether it be one of 
happiness, or one of discontent. 

My whole life seems from the earUest childhood to have been redun- 
dant with the blessings of God, and my constant prayer of late years has 
been that I might prove myself worthy. My happy old age has given 
me some assurance that my prayers may be answered. My life is 
slowly passing away in the brightest sunshine, thanks be to God, and 
I have not a wish for more, unless it ,be for the benefit of some one 
else. 

Some one has written, — Victor Hugo, I think, — that seventy years 
was the old age of youth and eighty was the youth of old age. I have 
found this to be the case. At seventy years of age almost every one is 
still hampered with the responsibilities of our past life and there is always 
a degree of anxiety in the uncertainty of the future, as to the disposition 
before the close of our lives. At eighty by common consent we will have 
become free, so far as possible while yet of this world, and new obliga- 
tions are no longer pressed upon us. We have reached a period of rest 
for both body and mind, and time is gained for meditation on the past 
and to give due thought to the mercy of Almighty God for the oppor- 
tunity thus afforded us. We find the outlook has become entirely 
changed as we pass our eightieth year and it becomes clear to us that 
we are to toil no more, having reached the summit. The declining 
course before us is straight, which we can follow with ease and in happy 
expectation to the end, if we have learned to appreciate God's mercy 
and to be thankful. 

To indicate my insignificant existence in connection with the affairs 
of the world, with yet form and being, my life is now as fragile as a 



4i6 Incidents of my Life 

bubble, floating on the surface unbroken by a ripple and passing with 
the current down the great stream of Life and near its mouth, where it 
is soon to discharge its contents into the boundless ocean of Eternity. 
* ' Here ends the story of my life ' ' — so far as I can give it. 



"And happy were I in my timely death." 

Measure for Measure. 



Appendix 



417 



Contents 



Note I. Page 421 

Circular issued by Dr. Emmet when appointed President of the Irish 
National Federation of America, June 9, 1891. 
Note II. Page 423 

Letter written by Dr. Emmet to the N. Y. Freeman's Journal, Sept. 27, 
1 89 1. Situation in Ireland. 
Note III. Page 424 

A letter from Dr. Emmet to the N. Y. Sun, May 13, 1894. I^^ reply 
to Lord Salisbury's charge against the Irish-Americans in the United 
States. 
Note IV. Page 428 

A letter from Dr. Emmet to Mr. Justin McCarthy, the leader of the 
Irish National party, relating to the dissension among the Irish members 
of Parliament. 
Note V. Page 429 

A letter from Dr. Emmet to one of the dissatisfied members, printed in 
the Dublin Freeman's Journal, Oct. 20, 1894. 
Note VI. Page 432 

A letter from Dr. Emmet to the N. Y. Herald, July 12, 1895, to correct 
a misstatement and giving a summary on Irish affairs. 
Note VII. Page 434 

A letter from Dr. Emmet, Dec. 3, 1901, to Mr. John E. Redmond, on 
his first visit to this country after becoming the leader of the Irish 
National party. 
Note VIII. Page 436 

Letter from Mr. Michael Fox to Dr. Emmet, Jan. 13, 1901, in relation 
to conditions existing on closing the Federation. 
Note IX. Page 436 

Mr. Michael Fox to Dr. Emmet in relation to forming the first 
branch of the United Irish League in the U. S., with the officials of the 
Federation. 
Note X. Page 438 

As to where the Battle of Harlem Heights was fought. Not on the site 
of Columbia College. 



420 Incidents of my Life 

Note XI. Page 446 

Letter from James Duane to Gen. George Clinton showing that the 
Irish Parliament had the power in 1780 of levying an impost tax on 
English products. 
Note XII. Page 448 

A letter from Dr. Emmet to the N. Y. Irish World, Oct. 19, 1907, show- 
ing that public feeling in England had changed for the better in relation 
to Ireland. 
Note XIII. Page 455 

An important letter from Dr. Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, in 
relation to a pledge or oath it has been alleged the young men are obliged 
to take before entering Maynooth to study for the priesthood. 
Note XIV. Page 457 

Showing that Miss Emmet painted the only authentic portrait of Fulton 
just previous to his death. That West never painted Fulton and that all 
alleged portraits by him were painted from the fraudulent engraving 
issued by Delaplaine in 18 17. 
Note XV. Page 458 
Note XVI. Page 460 

A list of titles of the chief contributions made by Dr. Emmet to 
medical and general literature. 
Note XVII. Page 464 

List of positions held in hospitals and societies, and of other honors 
conferred. 

These lists are necessarily defective as I have had to rely almost entirely 
on memory. 



Note I 

See page 283 

[Circular issued by Dr. Emmet when appointed President of the National 
Federation of America.] 

New York, June 9, 1891. 
To THE Friends in America of Home Rule for Ireland: 

From all in sympathy with the sufferings of the Irish people, due to centuries 
of misgovemment, and all who advocate Home Rule as the only remedy to 
better their condition, we ask co-operation and assistance to bring about a 
consummation. 

Deep has been the disappointment suffered by one generation after another. 
Each in turn has passed away, with hope deferred, to join the majority, yet 
with prayers ever raised on high that the sunburst of light and happiness 
might yet in the near future dawn on their beloved land. 

How often have they been betrayed! In our generation the Irish people 
have suffered and almost lost their cause when success seemed within easy 
grasp. For months past every effort has been paralyzed through the acts 
of one man, most trusted of all, who sinned and fell by his own hand. He thus 
betrayed the welfare of his country, so blindly entrusted to his guidance, 
and dragged the chaste name of Ireland into the gutter with his own sullied 
reputation. 

The necessity for assisting the starving and evicted tenants of Ireland was 
deeply appreciated in this country, and a noble effort was made to effect the 
purpose. Mr. Parnell was fully pledged to carry out this object, but he has 
betrayed his trust by his duplicity, his equivocation and his utter disingenuous- 
ness. His continuous selfish subordination of the welfare of the Irish peasantry 
to his own personal ends, in the matter of Home Rule, is no less conspicuous. 

Mr. Parnell stands to-day responsible for the present sufferings of the 
evicted tenants of Ireland, so far as they might have been mitigated by the use 
of the Paris fund, in the application of which he has refused to act with the 
other custodian. This fund consists of over two hundred thousand dollars, 
the greater portion of which was raised in this country. This he now holds, 
as he does his political position, by false pretenses and to forward his own 
personal ends. The people of this country are too sharp-witted not to fully 



422 Incidents of my Life 

appreciate his purpose, and the fact that he did not dare carry out his own 
proposition when the opportunity was given him, to meet his constitutents at 
the polls, has shown to the American mind how fully he himself realizes his 
desperate fortunes. 

He is yet claimed as a leader by a small portion of the Irish people. We raise 
no issue with them nor doubt their honesty, but we impugn their judgment. 
They will soon penetrate the glamour associated with the past service of an 
overrated leader. 

Those who have worked and hoped for Home Rule in Ireland are not 
divided into two parties, — there exists but one party and a faction. Mr. 
Parnell was the first to advocate that the majority should rule, and the first 
to disregard the fact. The opinion held by the large majority of thinking 
men in this country, if expressed, would be to the effect that Mr. Parnell is 
now politically dead and can never be resuscitated to hold a position of 
trust. 

When the cause was betrayed and there arose at first some difference of 
opinion as to the culpability of the act, Irish- Americans were unwilling to 
interfere and wished the difference settled by the Irish people themselves. We 
at a distance were better able to judge of the merits of the case, but our feeling 
of delicacy has been grossly misrepresented by the minority. Notwithstand- 
ing their representatives have canvassed this country for months past, in quest 
of aid and support, and to so little purpose, it is absurdly claimed by them that 
the people of America are in sympathy with their leader. Our silence and in- 
action can therefore do good no longer, but on the contrary, are freely used 
to the detriment of the cause we advocate. The time has now assuredly 
arrived for us to pronounce our denunciation on the one hand, and on 
the other, our fullest sympathy with those who represent the true interest of 
Ireland. 

The future guidance of Irish affairs, in the bringing about of Home Rule, 
must be trusted only to the majority of those elected to represent Ireland in 
the British Parliament. 

The members of the National party are not partisans of Mr. McCarthy, nor 
of any other leader, for with them the interest of the country is greater than 
that of any man. 

Were Ireland a unit, her proportion of representation in Parliament is too 
small to gain Home Rule unaided and this can alone be obtained by assistance 
from one or the other of the two great parties in England. A large portion of 
the English people has at length recognized the justice of the Irish claims for 
self-government. Under the guidance of Mr. Gladstone the Liberal party 
stands pledged to the support of Home Riile for Ireland, and no true man has 
cause to doubt his intent or honesty of purpose. 

Parliament may be dissolved this year, but certainly next year by limitation 
and the present party in office must appeal to the people. A desperate struggle 
will be made by the Tory party, with the aid of money, influence, and every 
other means, to gain a new lease of power, which, if successful, would neutralize 
every effort of the past twelve years to advance the cause of Home Rule. 



Appendix 423 

The friends of Ireland cannot stand by inactive and expect the Liberal 
party of England to bear the brunt, nor more than their just proportion of the 
burden. Money is needed and needed quickly, and at no time has an appeal 
been presented to the American people for the support of a cause more in 
accord with their appreciation and love of self-government. 

Few realize how much the Irish race aided during the Revolution in gaining 
the special form of government which we now prize so highly. Several of 
those who signed the Declaration of Independence were of Irish birth and others 
were of Irish parentage. Many of Washington's most trusted officers were 
Irishmen, and the sons of Erin in the Colonies were almost to a man found in 
the American ranks. Of those who were members of the Continental Congress 
and who formulated the unique system of Federal and State Government under 
which we have so prospered, a large proportion, especially in the Northern 
States, were natives of Ireland. 

We can, then, justly ask for the people of Ireland that they obtain the right 
of self-government in the direct management of her domestic affairs — which 
experience has shown us to be most conducive to advancing the prosperity 
of mankind. And when the Scotch, the Welsh, and the English people them- 
selves realize the necessity for such a boon we trust it may be granted them. ' 

The National Federation of America is similar in organization to the one 
existing in Ireland and is for the same purpose. In addition to the officers, 
it will consist of a Central Board of Trustees for the purpose of controlling 
and transmitting the funds to the properly constituted authorities of the 
National party in Ireland. The funds will consist of donations and yearly 
subscriptions made by individuals and by the members of the local branches of 
the Federation and affiliated organizations, which will be organized throughout 
the country, and will be collected and forwarded to Mr. Eugene Kelly, of New 
York, the treasurer of the organization. The Board of Trustees will at an 
early day issue in a printed form the Constitution and an account in detail 
of the organization. 

Thos. Addis Emmet, M.D., 
President of the National Federation of America. 

Note II 

See page 284 

[Letter written by Dr. Emmet to the N. Y. Freeman's Journal on Irish 
affairs.] 

Editor Freeman's Journal: 

I have been abroad this summer to study the Irish question and that I 
might direct the movements of the Federation in this country accordingly. 

The man is blind or will not see nor hear, who will still hold that Mr. 
Parnell can further serve the cause of Ireland. His selfish course has fully 

1 Probably the first advocacy for "Home Rule" all round. 



424 Incidents of my Life 

cancelled his former good work. He is politically dead and only capable of 
corrupting those about him. He has still a small following; such as any man 
may have among the unthinking and hero-worshipping portion of the people. 
But the best part of the law-abiding and God-serving among the Irish people 
would more cheerfully assent to a continuance of Balfour's rule than to have 
any further connection with Pamell and his self- aggrandizing policy. One 
great good will spring from what we have suffered, that in the future there will 
be no chance for hero-worshipping, as the leadership of Irish affairs I think will 
not rest with any one man. 

The necessity for such a coiirse I labored to present in the strongest 
terms while abroad, and I think it will bear good fruit. The leaders of the 
National Federation of America certainly have no intent to serve Mr. Mc- 
Carthy, or any other leader, but will work in the interest of the Irish National 
party, and this fact is well known abroad. The National League of this 
country is also dead to all intents and purposes, having outlived its usefulness. 
But we do not wish to supplant it, nor any other organization. It was simply 
necessary for the National cause that a new organization should exist — hence 
the Federation of America, into which I hope in time every Irishman in the 
land will become enrolled. During the past six months we have been at work, 
and in the near future I think the good fruit will be apparent to all, as the 
organization is now being effected throughout the country. 

Very truly yours, 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 
September 27, 1891. 

Note III 

See page 292 

[Dr. Emmet replies to Salisbury. The latter's attack on Irish- Americans 
exposed in its true venom.] 

[From the Sun, Stinday, May 13, 1894.] 
To THE Editor of the Sun. 

Sir: 

In the issue of your paper on Friday, May 4th last, a synopsis is given of 
Lord Salisbury's speech delivered the day before in Trowbridge, England, and 
with the headline, "The Tory Statesman's Comments on Irish- Americans." 

I have allowed several days to pass with the hope that some ' ' Irish- Ameri- 
can," better fitted for the purpose, would answer these statements. As no one 
has undertaken to do so, I feel, from my position in connection with Irish 
affairs in this country, and consequently in closer relations with the Irish 
leaders than any one else, that it is my duty not to let these charges pass 
unchallenged. 

This is an old trick of Lord Salisbury in the exhibit of special pleading, a 
want of fairness and even of truth when dealing with men and measures with 



Appendix 425 

which he may differ. So far as regards himself I consider that the truth in 
relation to Irish affairs, however clearly shown, would be of little value, 
because with its acceptance his political importance and that of his confreres 
would be lost. 

As President of the Irish National Federation of America I have had the 
means of knowing full well the views generally held by the people of Irish 
birth and descent in this country, and this to an extent which could not be 
appreciated by any one not familiar with the organization. 

My belief is that the Irish people as a whole can be fully conciliated, and, 
in our day, may prosper and live in unity as part of the British Empire. The 
only difSculty as regards any portion of the Irish people would be from a small 
class of men who have been goaded to desperation by an overwhelming sense 
of England's injustice to Ireland in the past and who are in utter despair of 
ever receiving any reasonable consideration of their just claims from English- 
men. These men have not yet had the opportunity of realizing that the 
England of the future may be governed by new men and by men of fair and 
liberal ideas. In the past the acts of just such men as Lord Salisbury have 
driven the Irish people to deeds of desperation and, in our day, to place no 
trust in England's promises. But to gain the end of which I am most hopeftil 
it is necessary that the English Government should recognize the urgent 
necessity for granting, within the near future, to the Irish people the manage- 
ment of their own affairs, with a fair representation in an imperial parliament. 

It is only natural that many years must elapse, even under the most favor- 
able circumstances, before the memory of the past five or six hundred years of 
English misrule in Ireland can be obliterated. Time alone can soften the 
impression made by the knowledge of the fact that scarcely ten years at any 
time has passed in all these centuries without the Irish people finding them- 
selves compelled to rise up in arms against some still more tyrannical act 
passed for their greater oppression or humiliation. The countless number of 
lives which were thus lost, the number which were expatriated, and the 
incalculable misery entailed made as little impression on the English people as 
the broad sweep of the Atlantic was able to change, during the same period, the 
stony cliffs on the west coast of this afflicted country. 

Yet with all this experience of the past and with a surprising common-sense 
view of the present situation, the Irish people are willing to-day, it is believed, 
to accept in good faith from the British Government the Home Rule bill as 
passed by the House of Commons. It will be received by the thinking por- 
tion of the Irish race as the only and as the last means existing for preserving 
their nationality, the Irish language, literature, and traditions. Every sensible 
man will concede that it is the wildest species of speculation to legislate for a 
condition which may never arise ; the future must take care of itself. I state 
without fear of being challenged that it wiir rest on the good faith of the 
English people toward their neighbors in Ireland whether the future between 
them will be one of weakness and brute force, as in the past, or exist as a bond 
of strength in mutual interest and good feeling. 

There has been no interference on the part of the people of this country, nor 



426 Incidents of my Life 

any wish to dictate in the sHghtest degree to those abroad, who have had charge 
of Irish affairs. Not a single suggestion even has been made, to my knowledge, 
beyond pointing out the absolute necessity for insuring success to the efforts 
of the Federation, that the leaders should be united, and that the will of the 
majority should govern. As an organization the members of the Federation 
have acted strictly as Americans with Irish sympathies, and have worked with 
the majority of the National party, through its members in Parliament, to 
collect funds for meeting, as far as possible, the expenses in the cause of Home 
Rule. But the terms and the mode of passing the measure have been left 
throughout, without question, to the Irish leaders. The assertion made by 
Lord Salisbury that the Irish political leaders in this country are likely to 
interfere hereafter and help to govern Ireland in the future is absolutely ab- 
surd and without the slightest foundation even for the suspicion. It is our 
business to collect money and it is natural, therefore, that we should form 
our judgments from that standpoint. In all truth, then, I make the statement 
that if the amount of money contributed to the cause of Home Rule by any 
individual political leader is to be accepted as an indication of the interest 
taken in Irish affairs there will be no cause to fear a single Irish-American 
politician in this country. 

According to my observation, also, the accumulation of wealth among 
those who become the most prosperous, and the seeking for the advantages 
to be gained by it subsequently, reduces their interest in Irish affairs to a 
nullity. Without a single exception, in my experience, it has proved to have 
been the case that the more an Irish leader. Democrat or Republican, has be- 
come identified with American politics the less interest has he seemed to 
show in those of his native land. So that the danger is not great to "our 
Ulster brethren" of being "given to slavery in order to please the triangle in 
Chicago or Tammany bosses in New York." 

What an effort the conception of this fear must have been even for the 
imaginative and fertile brain of Lord Salisbury ! 

The fact is that interest in Irish affairs has been kept alive in this country 
chiefly by the laboring men, the tradespeople, and by the members of the 
different learned professions, and in only two or three instances have the 
leaders come from any other calling; and the rule has been, almost without 
exception, that the means of all have been more or less limited. Certainly 
these men are not fitted, as Lord Salisbury claims, to unsettle British com- 
merce. Nor is it true, as he charges, "they would command all your trade 
routes and menace all your ports." 

It would be well that England should realize the fact that a great moral 
influence has been temporarily exerted by the men in this country who have 
favored the Home Rule measure, and she should apply this for her own good 
and use the opportunity to render restitution for the past. The friends whom 
Lord Salisbury claims to have in this country have been as indifferent to Irish 
matters as if they were in England and members of the Tory party, where they 
belong, and they need no "conciliation" in their hatred for the Irish people 
which they hold in common with him. But public opinion in favor of Home 



Appendix 427 

R\ile has kept the peace and has held in check throughout this country the 
restless, the impulsive and almost irresponsible spirits who have felt as uncom- 
promising in mood to this influence as toward the British Government itself. 
Yet the check has been irresistible, and the knowledge of the existence of 
this condition in America has done more to keep the peace for some years 
past in Ireland than all the troops and constabulary forces Great Britain could 
command. It yet remains to be seen if the majority of the English people will 
grasp the opportunity, for on this turn may rest even the future existence of 
both England and Ireland. 

If we can judge from the history of the past, and we have no right to base 
a supposition as to the future on any other ground, the fear expressed by Lord 
Salisbury of religious intolerance by the Catholic majority is equally absurd 
and is scarcely worthy of consideration. Not a single authentic instance of 
intolerance on the part of the Catholics of Ireland during the past two 
hundred years can be cited, while it can be easily shown that all the religious 
disturbance during this period has directly or indirectly emanated from the 
Orangemen. This order was first formed with a spirit of intolerance as the 
essence of its organization, and without it this body would have long since 
ceased to exist as a disturbing element in the country. In the south and west, 
or Catholic portions of Ireland, where in population the proportion has been fre- 
quently more than four to one, there has been no trouble. The Catholics have 
been even more than tolerant, have fully trusted their Protestant neighbors 
with the management of their private affairs and have universally placed more 
of them in office by their votes than they have those of their own belief. In so- 
called "Protestant Ulster," where, in truth, the Catholics form nearly half the 
population, and are equally as prosperous under the same advantages, I would 
ask if a single instance can be given of a practical Catholic, however well fitted, 
having been elected to an office of trust by an Orange constituency? I use the 
term " Protestant " simply as used abroad in contradistinction to "Catholic." 
But I deem it as a great injustice to class the majority of the people termed 
Protestants with the Orangemen. Those familiar with the past history of 
Ireland know that the greater portion of her leaders have not been Catholics, 
and many of the truest and .best friends to the interests of the country at large 
have not been identified with that faith. The only enemies to Ireland's 
future peace and prosperity are the Orangemen, whose sole purpose in existence 
is to breed discord under the cloak of religion; with these the mass of the 
Protestants of Ireland have no more in common than have the Catholics. I do 
not believe that any charitable and fair-minded man in Ireland, or out of it, 
has the slightest fear that the Catholics in the future, with the ftillest measure 
of Home Rule, will ever interfere with the Orangemen. All know, as well as 
the Orangemen themselves, that, from the moment the Irish people have the 
management of their own affairs, the Orange organization, as an element 
of discord, will have already outlived its usefulness to its Tory friends in 
England, and must at once become insignificant. There are many true Irish- 
men who are not Catholics who believe that these people came into the country 
originally for no creditable purpose, have lived since as so many parasites on it. 



428 Incidents of my Life 

and have never been and never will be identified with the prosperity of the 
country at large. 

Throwing aside all sentiment, and simply looking to the best good of Ireland 
in her connection with circumstances existing to-day, and over which she is 
powerless to exert any control, I sincerely believe that her condition is best as 
a part of the British Empire; far preferable, indeed, to the accepting of her 
independence in her present state, even if it were freely tendered by England. 

Thos. Addis Emmet, M.D., 
President of the Irish National Federation of America. 

May lo, 1894. 

Note IV 

See page 2Q4 

[A letter from Dr. Emmet to the leader of the National party in relation 
to the dissension continuing among Irish members of Parliament.] 

Hotel Metropole, London, 

Sept. 21, 1894. 
Dear Mr. McCarthy: 

In accordance with the suggestions made in your last letter to the officials 
of the Irish National Federation of America, we were making preparations 
with the branches of our organization for holding public meetings in New York, 
Boston, and Philadelphia, and some of the southern cities, to raise subscriptions 
for the national cause, and we had reason to anticipate highly satisfactory 
results. 

When, however, the letter of Mr. Healy in reference to the subscriptions of 
Mr. Gladstone and Lord Tweedmouth was published the peril of the whole 
movement in America appeared to me so grave I felt it mj' duty to come 
to "this side" on twelve hours' notice to lay certain information before you 
as leader of the National party, before your colleagues, and before the Irish 
people. 

I have no right or desire to dictate, or even suggest a policy to you and your 
colleagues, for we in America are always ready to accept without question the 
judgment of the party. But it is clearly my duty to bring to your notice the 
disastrous consequences to the movement in America from the constant 
recurrence of the scandal of public discussion of internal differences in the 
party. 

You know that this is not the first time I have been compelled to draw 
your attention to this fact. I informed you on two different occasions that all 
our efforts to obtain financial assistance for the cause were rendered futile by 
similar public discussions of your internal differences. We had hoped from 
some of your communications to us written the past twelve months, that these 
public scandals were at an end. You transmitted to us a resolution of your 
colleagues in the party, passed, as we learned, by unanimous vote, which we 
understood to mean that your colleagues pledged themselves not to rush into 



Appendix 429 



print with individual differences of opinions ; and consequently we recalled the 
resolution of the Liverpool Convention, which expressed similar views. We 
interpreted the unanimous resolution of the party as a guarantee, if not, 
indeed, an honorable and binding pledge, that such public discussions should 
cease, and that on the faith of such a pledge we could renew our efforts for 
Ireland. 

In spite of these resolutions and assurances we find another outbreak of the 
same proceedings. To us the great point of importance is the unity and dis- 
cipline of the party. To maintain these it is absolutely essential, in our 
opinion, that all such public discussions as those recently initiated should 
finally be put a stop to. In our opinion these discussions shoiold never be 
heard outside the doors of your party meetings. 

We in America have all the more difficulty in understanding these scandals, 
as we have perfect confidence in you as a leader and in the party as a unit, and 
we are ready to stand by and support you to the end of the struggle. Neither 
the patience, the generosity, nor the patriotism of your friends in America is 
exhausted. We have the same warm hearts to give you support now as during 
the past. In the two or three years' existence of this organization we have been 
able to send you some $68,000, and if it had not been for these periodic and 
recurrent outbreaks of public discussion you could, I believe, count on a 
regiilar annual subscription from our organization of $50,000. 

The principle of majority rule and unity in political organizations is so 
well established with us that no attempt of a minority to rtile or to disunite 
the party will ever receive the slightest countenance from us. I appeal, then, 
to you, to all your colleagues without exception, and to the Irish people, to 
put down these disastrous discussions, to support the unity and discipline of 
the party, and to no longer paralyze the efforts of the best and warmest friends 
of the Irish cause in America. 

Very truly yours, 
Thos. Addis Emmet, 
President Irish National Federation of America. 

Note V 

See page 2g4 

[The following letter was printed in the Dublin Freeman's Journal, October 
20th.] 

89 Madison Avenije, N. Y., 
Oct. 4, 1894. 

Esq., M.P., London. 

Sir: 

Your letter of the 21st of September reached me but a few hours before 
leaving London for the steamer. I had then only leisure to acknowledge its 
reception, promising to give it my early attention upon reaching New York. 

Since you and Mr. have decided, for one reason and another, not to put 

in writing a statement of your complaints against the majority management of 



430 Incidents of my Life 



the National party, I am thus left by you without substantial grounds of 
complaint. 

I have nothing then beyond that which I have learned by conversation with 

you and Mr. , at which time I urged it upon you both to speak with the 

greatest frankness, since I had but the single purpose to bring about unity 
of the party, if possible, by means of action to be taken by the Trustees of the 
Federation of America. This action was necessarily to be based upon the 
report made by me on my return. 

The statements in your letter seem but special pleading, as your 
profession has it, and it no doubt came naturally to you; but to me, more 
accustomed to gaining my end by the most direct way, they seem both vague 
and irrelevant. Above all, you failed to justify the claims you and your friends 
make that a party shotdd be governed by its minority rather than by its 
majority. 

However, the important point is not so much the difference of opinion be- 
tween different individuals or sections within the party as that these differences 
shoiild be fought out, not in the public press nor on the platform, to the detri- 
ment if not the destruction of the cause, but within the party meeting with 
closed doors. To the view of the public at least the Irish party should be 
united, and the decision of its majority should be the decision of the party as 
a unit after adequate and free discussion before the party vote. 

I can see no reason in the proposals which you advance as a means of settle- 
ment. You and Mr. ask that a certain proportion of the committee be 

given to Mr. Healy. By what reason can you justify such a claim? As I 
understand it, the committee is selected every year by ballot, open to every 
member of the party in Parliament, and any member may be elected. You 
propose to substitute for this method of election, which appears to me emi- 
nently fair and democratic, the nomination of a certain proportion of Mr. 
Healy's friends, leaving the remainder only to the majority. But what right 
has any individual to the claim of special representation on the committee? 
If Mr. Healy be entitled to representative proportion why not every other 
individual member as well? 

The summary of your views as shown in your letter is that the minority 
is entitled to demand a portion of the committee, not because they happen 
to be representatives of any principle but because they are the followers of 
a single member. Thus, unless the will of the minority be submittted to 
by the majority, you and your friends claim the right to endanger if not 
ruin the movement, by rushing into print with the discussion of your 
internal differences. We should call such a policy in America that of "Rule 
or Ruin." 

I note what you say as to the difference of attitude in different sections of 
the party toward Lord Rosebery's government. I have no right to suggest nor 
to forecast the attitude of the party upon a question so momentous as the 
defeat of Home Rule government, and the certain accession of the Coercion- 
ists. I assume that this matter will be debated ftilly and seriously at a 
meeting of the party. Nor have I any reason to suppose that Mr. McCarthy 



Appendix 43i 



and his advisers will be less ready than yourself to strike a vigorous blow, 
should such be needed. But I do assume that the decision will be reached 
by a party vote, and that this majority decision will be upheld as binding 
upon the party as a whole. I cannot conceive that you and your friends will 
face the responsibility of breaking the pledge to abide by the majority decis- 
ion, of producing another split, and of bringing about years of Tory govern- 
ment, with the indefinite postponement of Home Rule for Ireland! 

I read with regret the series of insinuations with which your letter concludes. 
That a man of your years should think it courteous or becoming to address 
such language to a man of my age surprises me ; still more that you should use 
such language to me, when upon a visit to London, as you know, in the interest 
of Ireland only and at no little personal inconvenience. However, I do not 
care to be the censor of your good taste in this matter. The spirit which under- 
lies these insinuations is far more important. You suggest that I have been 
acting in the interest of a section of the Irish party. Your sole ground for this 
baseless and insulting suggestion is a statement of my views which appeared in 
a Cork journal from its London correspondent. I state there simply that the 
people of America who support the Irish cause will stand by the principles of 
majority rule and party action. This you have the hardihood to designate 
"a one-sided view," hence I infer that your idea of an impartial view would be 
the declaration that America would support the minority of your party 
against the majority! 

The further insinuation that my opinions were expressed before I had the 
opportunity of conferring with the minority you must yourself know to be 
unfounded. You are, I understand, the correspondent of another Cork 
journal. I saw you on the same day on which I was interviewed by the repre- 
sentative of the Cork paper, or it may be possible even on the day before. 

While I conversed with him for a few moments only, I devoted the greater 
portion of an hour to you, I spoke fully, frankly, and with the kindest spirit in 
answer to your views, but nothing you then said changed my opinions. You 
were as free then to quote my statements as the other correspondents had, if it 
suited your purpose to do so. It is equally untrue, as you insinuate, that I was 
not willing to receive and to hear any representative of the minority. I saw 

you, I saw Mr. , and was ready to see any one else. I heard ivUly all that 

both of you chose to say to me, and this before, as it happened, I had even 
seen Mr. McCarthy, or had held any official relation with the majority of the 

party. This fact, moreover, I stated to both you and Mr. at the time 

of your respective visits. To the best of my recollection I said to you many 
things which I did not mention to the interviewer of the Cork journal, and some 
of these it would have been to the interest of your party to have published. 
You will recall that I laid particular stress upon my opinion that there was no 
other course for an honorable man to follow, and at the same time preserve his 
self-respect, than to resign from a party as soon as he finds himself in the 
minority and unwilling to submit to the majority decision. And if I had not 
already fvilly expressed my further views on this subject, I will now add, that 
while it might be a question of good taste to act as a free lance afterward, one 



432 Incidents of my Life 

would certainly be entitled to more respect than if he were to remain a nominal 
member for the sole purpose apparently of defeating his party's policy. 

I will now communicate to you the fact that while I was awaiting Mr. Mc- 
Carthy's return — the only person, by the way, in England with whom I sought 
an interview — I was visited by a number of persons in and out of the National 
party, who fully discussed with me the present situation of Irish affairs. 
Consequently I can justly claim to be in possession of a knowledge of this 
question from all points of view. My information I shall repeat to the Board 
of Trustees of the Federation of America. Whatever their action, there is no 
question that the time is near at hand when the Irish sympathizers in America, 
who are looked to for pecuniary aid to the Irish cause, will be heard from with 
no uncertain note if their cause of complaint be continued. 

The majority of the National party has our full confidence, but the Irish 
people themselves will soon have to assume the responsibility of deciding 
whether a faction, or the accredited majority of the National party, shall in 
the future be charged with the welfare of Ireland. 

You are fully aware that the sole object of our organization in this country 
is to raise money, and that we have never desired nor claimed the right of 
interference with the political affairs of the party; but if we are to be held 
responsible to any extent for the funds needed for the National party we have 
certainly the right to insist that our efforts in this direction should not be 
rendered futile and ridiculous with the public flaunting of internal dissensions 
by irresponsible members. I will state furthermore that lack of unity and 
discipline in the party which has permitted any member at his wUl to ventilate 
in the public press his purely personal views on his party's policy has, from the 
beginning, nearly paralyzed our efforts in this country, and this has happened 
so often against our frequent protest that the opinion is fast gaining ground 
with us that those who resort to such practices are too selfish to be honest 
friends of Home Rvde. In conclusion, allow me to state that with your per- 
sonal knowledge of these facts, and the disposition which I showed toward 
you, your letter cannot be regarded as either courteous or candid. I wiU send 
a copy of it with this answer to Mr. McCarthy, with the request that he may 
publish both, unless his judgment shovdd disapprove of this course. 

Yotirs trtdy, 

Thos. Addis Emmet. 

Note VI 

See page 303 
[Thomas Addis Emmet writes to the Herald about the National party.] 

To THE Editor of the Herald: 

In your issue of Jvily 1st, and under the editorial heading "Funds for Ire- 
land, " an unfair statement of Irish affairs is made, not intentionally, I believe, 
but from a want of knowledge of the true situation. 

There exists but one party in Ireland in favor of Home Rtile, the Irish 



Appendix 433 



National party, of which Mr. Justin McCarthy is the head. In no other coun- 
try has a party been more united for a common object than this one has been 
for many years past, as the representative of a very large majority of the Irish 
people at home and abroad. The National party of Ireland is to-day more 
closely united than any political party in this country, in England, France, or 
Germany, and represents a larger proportion of the population. A favorite 
weapon of the enemies of Home Rule for Ireland has been the assertion, so 
often made, that the Irish people are too divided to govern themselves. 

The following statement is made in your editorial : ' ' The two wings of the 
Irish Nationalists are, in truth, opposing each other as bitterly as each opposes 
the common enemy. That is not good politics, and the proof of it may be seen 
in the fact that ever since the split in the Nationalists' ranks the flow of 
American contributions has almost ceased." 

The first portion of this statement is not correct and the remainder only 
partially so. 

There is no longer a split in the National party of Ireland. A small 
faction headed by Mr. Redmond claimed for a time to be in favor of Home 
Rule, but it wotild be more to the credit of this small representation if it openly 
joined the Tory party. 

Every step was taken by the leaders of the National party long since to 
conciliate these so-called Parnellites but without success. It is, therefore, 
unjust to claim a want of unity among the Irish leaders, because these men 
are not members of the majority party. It might equally as well be argued 
that unity did not exist among the advocates of Home Rule, because Colonel 
Saunderson and his friends the Orangemen are not in favor of the measure, 
notwithstanding they were born in Ireland- 

The public has been equally misled by" the term "Parnellites." If this 
be applied anywhere it should rest with the National party, as this body 
has consistently supported every measure advocated by Mr. Parnell, and has 
never deviated in the slightest degree from the course indicated by him, while 
those who have taken the name would be repudiated to-day by Mr. Parnell 
if he were alive. 

The future success of the Home Rtde cause rests alone with the people of 
Irish sympathy scattered throughout the world. The people of Ireland have 
already taxed themselves to the utmost, and now that help is called for to meet 
the expenses of the coming election if a liberal response be not made, and made 
promptly, the gaining of Home Rule for Ireland will be retarded possibly for 
another ten years. 

The statement made in the editorial as to the assistance given by this 
country is only partially correct. While from many causes the contributions 
have not been as liberal as formerly, the aid given has not been inconsiderable. 
Since the organization of the Federation, and in the past three years, more than 
one hundred and six thousand dollars has been contributed through its in- 
fluence alone to the cause of Home Rule, and no very special effort has been 
made to accomplish it. 

The National party of Ireland has nothing more to do with English politics 



434 Incidents of my Life 



or English parties than so far as either can be utilized to advance the cause. 
The Liberal party has placed itself on record, and cannot oppose Home Rule 
in the future, and if it returns to power it may become more enthusiastic in 
the cause than of late. Should the Tory party be successful, then God help 
Ireland, with the "coercion laws" unrepealed. It means a return to old 
methods and measures which kept the country for centuries in a state of 
turmoil and misery. For years past, under the policy of the Liberal party, 
Ireland has been a peaceful and law-abiding country, patiently awaiting the 
issue in the gain of Home Rule by legal means. Should the Tory party become 
the governing power, this will all certainly be changed. It will then become 
more necessary than ever before in the history of Irish affairs that the largest 
number possible should be returned by the National party to Parliament, and 
this cannot be done without money. 

An unusually large representation of the National party in Parliament 
might be the most efficient weapon in forcing a repeal by the Tories of the 
so-called Union measure. This, which was brought about by the same party 
in the beginning of the century, is now known to have been accomplished 
through means too corrupt and vile for any honest man of the present day to 
advocate, and a sufficient number of Tories may be found to vindicate the 
honor of their own country. 

A call has been made upon the Irish sympathizers in America, and as 
has been stated, the issue rests with them alone. 

Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., 
President Irish National Federation of America. 

New York, July i, 1895. 

Note VII 

See page 341 
[To Mr. Redmond during first visit to U. S. as leader.] 

89 Madison Avenue, N. Y., 

December 3, 1901. 
Dear Mr. Redmond: 

As soon as the United Irish League was organized in Ireland, the organiza- 
tion under my direction, which had represented the Irish National Federation 
in this country, was disbanded, and the first branch of the United Irish League 
in the United States was formed. Into its care was given all the books and 
papers of the old organization so that it was fully equipped for work as soon 
as we became a united people. 

The first action taken by this body was in a communication made to Mr. 
Dillon requesting that a delegation should be sent to this country at an early 
day, to aid in organizing branches of the United Irish League throughout the 
country. No action, however, was taken until after your election to the leader- 
ship, and then the decision to send such a delegation was communicated to 
another organization — composed of many if not all who had formed them- 
selves into a second branch of the United League. But after failure to elect 



Appendix 435 

their candidate for chairmanship of the Executive Council, the members 
declined to take any further action in common with those of the other branch. 

When I called to pay my respects to you, as the head of the National party, 
and mentioned these facts, you informed me that there had been a mistake 
in making the communication as you thought at the time all belonged to the 
League. 

I then suggested that you should send for the president, secretary, and 
others, give the explanation and hear what they had to say, for they repre- 
sented a body of good workers which you could not afEord to lose. 

Learning afterwards that you did not act on my suggestion and that 
none had been called upon to take part in the public reception given you, 
I still urged that the branch should not be disbanded as I was told the 
majority wished, but to preserve the organization and do what was possible 
in the future for the good of the cause. I advised also that the members 
should attend and take part in the meeting to be held at the Hoffman House 
for the purpose I had supposed, of obtaining funds for the use of the United 
Irish League in Ireland. 

I have just been informed that none of those connected with the first and 
only branch of the United Irish League in New York have been invited to 
attend the Hoffman House meeting, and as the printed invitation I have 
received directs: "Bring this letter as your credential" it is evident that the 
meeting is not to be a public one where all could take part for the good of the 
Irish National cause, but that it is to be held in the interest of a minority, if 
not a clique. 

It was perfectly natural that you, as a stranger, should first look to those 
who gave you their support when the party was divided, but to continue to do 
so exclusively has kept up the division, and I fear you have been misled. 

At the present time when it is supposed we are again united with a common 
purpose, a grave mistake has been made in not conciliating those who felt 
aggrieved, and in not getting the management of affairs into the hands of those 
who as non-partisans co\ild have presented a united front by placing in the 
background all on either side who had agreed to disagree. 

It would be useless for me to attend the meeting, as the personal influence 
I could exert for the good of the cause is confined to those who have been ex- 
cluded, most of whom stood by me during the troubled existence of the Federa- 
tion, and many were workers under Mr. Eugene Kelly for raising money for 
the Parliamentary Fund during Mr. Parnell's leadership, and they have 
always been ready to contribute to the Irish cause. 

This letter will close my personal connection with Irish affairs in New York, 
which began in the spring of 1850 by giving my professional services for several 
years to the famished emigrants who were suffering on their arrival from 
typhus or ship-fever, cholera, or small-pox. I have now reached a time of 
life when I must spare myself from the wear and tear attending the jealousies, 
bickerings, and strife which, through the efforts of comparatively a few indi- 
viduals, have of late years to my knowledge been made to play an active 
part among those of our race in this city. 



436 Incidents of my Life 

Sincerely wishing that full success under these circumstances may attend 
your efforts, I am, 

Yours very truly, 

Thomas Addis Emmet, 
John E. Redmond, Esq. 
Hoffman House. 

Note VIII 

See page 342 

[New York Central Council of the United Irish League, 47 West 42d Street.] 

New York, Jan. 13, 1901. 
Dear Doctor Emmet: 

We held a meeting on Friday night last which was attended by Messrs. 
Patrick Gallagher, Peter McDonnell, John McKee, John J. Rooney, John P. 

Brophy, Edwd. Murphy, Burke, P. A. Moynahan, etc., etc. It was 

decided to send a statement of our position up to the present time to the 
United Irish League in Ireland. I fear it will do little good now but the 
majority were in favor of putting ourselves clearly on record with the 
League. We are preparing a statement, and would like very much, if the 
matter meet your approval, to send a copy of your letter to Mr. Redmond 
with, of course, his telegraphic reply in order to be fair. We will show how 
unfounded his assumption that everything was regularly done. Kindly let us 
have a copy. 

The whole matter will be entirely for the League because no patriotic 
man now desires a public wrangle. Messrs. Wm. Redmond and Jos. Devlin 
are coming to complete the work of the other delegation, which in itself shows 
that everything was not done that might have been performed. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Michael Fox. 

Note IX 

See page 342 
[New York Central Council of the United Irish League, 47 West 42d Street.] 

New York, Jan. 29, 1902. 
Dear Doctor Emmet : 

I herewith return the entire correspondence you so kindly sent me. I have 
read it all over carefully and believe you put our side of the question very 
strongly and very fairly. I had it long enough to copy the whole business but 
did not do so lest any part of it might be used out of place. I know we can 
trouble you again if it be reqtdred. Your letter and talk with Mr. McDonnell 
settled for good all ideas of sending over a statement to the League in Ireland. 
I had it prepared but I told the meeting that I would cut off my right hand 
before I would sign it. That while entirely true I could see no difference 



Appendix 437 

between it and the statement published in the Clan interest, and also the state- 
ments of the common enemy with regard to the non-success of the delegation. 
Those who most favored sending the statement were the first to move that 
it be not sent, which disposed of the matter. 

About being in any position to meet the coming delegation — I regret that 
very many appear to have enough of Irish politics for some time. I don't blame 
them very much, for it takes strong patriotism indeed to survive the maltreat- 
ment which we received. For myself I feel that the cause still lives and if 
any honorable way out can be found I will do what little I can to serve it. I 
have closely watched and studied the entire League position in Ireland from all 
standpoints lately, and have come to the conclusion that no matter who is at 
the head or who is manipulating it from behind, the United Irish League is a 
great power, the only great power that is tackling the ancient and unrelenting 
enemies of our people in Ireland, and whether it succeeds or not should be 
supported as well as any of the organizations of the last twenty years. How 
to do it in New York is the difficulty. These people who have done all the 
shouting have done nothing else, but they block the way. Mr. Crimmins's 
committee has done very little either, neither I fear will do much in the near 
future, nor can we be called upon to act, and if we were, many of our people 
will not work with the Fifty-ninth Street crowd. I would work with any 
one honestly working for Ireland, but I believe there must be an amicable 
arrangement all around or Ireland's cause will suffer some. 

I shall try and see Mr. Devlin and I suppose Mr. Redmond in company 
with some of our men who believe in doing something. Anyhow it won't do 
any harm to show a readiness to help and throw the onus of finding a way 
upon others delegated to do so, — perhaps. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Michael Fox. 

Although out of place in the Appendix, I cannot close this brief notice 
in relation to the work of the Irish Federation without making some comment 
on the active part taken by the New York Council of the Federation, from 
the beginning to the end. I am unable to recall the names of the members, in 
addition to those given by Mr. Fox, with a single exception. In this con- 
nection the recollection of Patrick Gleason at once presents itself. Mr. 
Gleason's work in the early days of the organization was only second in im- 
portance to that of Mr. Ryan. His aid was not confined to his duties as a 
member of the council, for he lent a ready hand wherever he could render 
service. He was a ready speaker, was well informed in Irish affairs, and a 
man of tact. When we were beginning to get into trouble on account of the 
dissension among the Irish members of Parliament and when we most needed 
his services, we were obliged to accept his resignation on account of his health 
and business obligations. His loss was a great one, and I can truthfully 
state that his place was never filled. 

My duties along other lines left me in ignorance of the special work of 
the different members of the council and I only know of the results. 



438 Incidents of my Life 

I hope Mr. John J. Rooney or Prof. John P. Brophy, both being ready 
writers, or Mr. Fox, as Secretary, may, at some time place on record a brief 
detailed account of the working of the organization, and particularly to give 
due credit to the individual members. Unlike the members of the Board 
of Trustees, those of the council never became discouraged from the outlook, 
nor flagged in their efforts to advance the cause of Home Rule for Ireland, until 
the Irish National Federation of America ceased to exist and the greater 
portion of them then entered the United Irish League and are at present 
as zealous workers for the cause. 

Note X 

See page 377 

[As to where the battle of Harlem Heights was fought, — not on the site of 
Columbia University grounds.] 

In answer to an article published in one of the New York papers during 
the winter of 1905-6, I entered a protest against placing a bronze tablet 
on one of the buildings of Columbia College, formerly the site of the Blooming- 
dale Insane Asylum, to designate it as the position where the battle of Harlem 
was fought. 

My article was printed in the Magazine of History, New York, September, 
1906, to which the reader must refer if wishing to obtain more knowledge in 
detail, and to consult Mrs. Lamb's History of New York (vol. ii., page 129) 
for a reproduction of Cotton's map, which gives the situation of Day's tavern, 
and it in turn locates the point of attack on the American line, which consti- 
tuted the battle of Harlem. From my article I will give some extracts of 
general interest. 

I am aware that this view is held by many, but beyond the fact that the 
present site of Columbia University must necessarily be nearer the locality 
where the battle was fought, it has no greater claim, I believe, to that honor 
than has Union Square, or any other locality. I am not actuated by a spirit 
of controversy in raising this issue, nor do I intend to take any further part in 
discussion. I simply wish to offer a protest, in consequence of my knowl- 
edge that the history of our country is being constantly perverted and mis- 
stated. 

There exists no question that the battle of Harlem was fought either to 
the north or the south of the western portion of Harlem Flats ; that the Ameri- 
cans occupied certain heights; and that the assault of the English was made 
by one body, and that the larger portion, from the plain below along these 
heights; at the same time a smaller body gained the top of these heights by 
ascending a ravine from the Hudson River bank at some distance from the 
main line of attack. The whole question then relates to the locality of Har- 
lem Heights. Before presenting the evidence on which I propose to base my 
argument it will be necessary to make a digression. 



Appendix 439 

Grant's Tomb occupies the site of Mt. Alto, the country place of my uncle, 
the late Mr. Bache McEvers, with whom for many years I spent a portion of 
every summer. As a boy I became as familiar with every foot of this neighbor- 
hood as I am now with the sidewalk in front of my Madison Avenue city 
residence, where I have lived for nearly fifty years. I generally accompanied 
my uncle when he took his Sunday afternoon walks, and through his knowledge 
I became familiar with the history and traditions of this neighborhood, and of 
Westchester. On one occasion, during the summer, I think of 1838, I had 
pointed out to me the site of the battle of Harlem Heights, with the ravine 
on the North River, or west side, where a portion of the British troops came up 
to make the attack, and beyond that the road on Breakneck Hill, to the east 
side, down which a portion of the English were driven after being routed. The 
surrounding country was then under cultivation and divided up in small 
fields, with scarcely any trees standing but along the river bank and on the 
brow of the heights to the eastward. This locality and ravine were near the 
site and possibly form a portion of the present Trinity Cemetery. I was 
also told that the main part of the battle was fought below, to the south, and 
I went over the ground about the locality of the present Convent of the 
Sacred Heart, which neighborhood was too hilly to be termed "a rolling 
country." From my earliest knowledge in connection with this battle until 
recent years, no doubt seems to have existed as to where the battle was fought 
and the accepted belief was that the fight took place on the ground I have 
described. The fact that the attack was made at distant points and covered 
quite an area would explain, I should think, the difficulty and the vague 
manner in which the battle is described or located by those who possessed a 
contemporaneous knowledge of the locality of the Harlem Heights. 

Along the south side of Harlem Commons or Flats, there extended a 
precipitous ridge of rock and debris from the Hudson River at Grant's Tomb 
to the East River at Hell Gate. At the time of the Revolution the chief exit 
from the City of New York to the north was by way of McGowan's Pass, and 
in addition there were several footpaths to reach the plain below. I have 
always heard that the Bloomingdale road was not extended along the hill by 
Grant's Tomb and Claremont to the valley below until many years after the 
Revolution, and there was ondy a private road in addition to the one by 
McGowan's Pass, which crossed this line about the course of the present Third 
Avenue. When I was a boy there were two or three footpaths to the west of 
McGowan's Pass, and at no other place was the descent possible save to a 
goat, or an active boy. Across the Bloomingdale road, in front of my uncle's 
gate and along the top of the hill, there was at that time the remains of the 
British line of earthworks, which originally extended along the crest of his 
ridge across the island to the East River. The trench was about two feet 
deep at that time, and I have frequently followed without difficulty the line 
well on to McGowan's Pass. In the War of 1812 this line was fortified for 
the protection of the city by a series of blockhouses, one of which still stands. 
I believe the remains of the British line of earthworks was undisturbed until 
the opening of the streets. McGowan's Pass was formerly considered as 



440 Incidents of my Life 

forming part of the Yorkville Heights, and no part of this line, to the south 
of the Harlem Commons, was ever termed Harlem Heights until within recent 
years. If the portion of these heights nearest Harlem was always called the 
Yorkville Heights, it is inexplicable why the most distant portion of the line 
should be in any way associated by name with Harlem. On the other hand, 
I have often heard the heights on the south side of the Harlem River termed 
Harlem Heights, and these extend westward to the Hudson River bank. The 
settlement at Harlem with its Commons, or land in common, and the one at 
Yorkville represented two distinct interests, and for one familiar with the 
circumstances it is difficult to understand how any confusion, from accident, 
should exist between Harlem and Yorkville Heights. 

That section of the island to the north of the Harlem Commons, between 
the Hudson River and the Boston road, which passed from McGowan's Pass 
to King's Bridge, and from the northern end of the island to the Point of Rocks 
to the south, then situated below the present site of the convent, included the 
fortress of Fort Washington and its outworks. 

I had at one time in my possession the draft of a letter written by Mr. 
George Pollock, a linen merchant of New York, and the father of the child 
whose grave is near the Grant Tomb . In this letter Pollock states he purchased 
after the Revolution a tract of land and cleared off the primitive forest which 
still covered this portion of Manhattan Island, and it is not likely, therefore, 
that the buckwheat field existed in this neighborhood in which it is claimed a 
part of the battle of Harlem was fought. Mr. Pollock built here a house> 
where he lived for a number of years, until the death of his wife and the loss 
of his child from drowning. He then sold the place to Gulian Verplanck, of 
Verplanck's Point. My uncle leased for many years this place from his cousin, 
Gulian C. Verplanck, the Shakespearian scholar, and the son of him who 
purchased it from Pollock. All this portion of the island, west of McGowan's 
Pass along the river bank to about Sixty-fifth or Seventieth Street, was heavily 
timbered until after the Revolution. To the existence of this timbered section 
the portion of the American army left in New York after the battle and 
evacuation of Long Island owed its escape, for the retreat was made in dis- 
order and the troops were in a demoralized condition. The sudden flight of 
the army from the city was rendered necessary by the English landing in force 
at Kipp's Bay, just above the present Bellevue Hospital, where they met with 
little resistance from the portion of the Connecticut troops, and some other 
colony I do not recollect, which were placed there to oppose the landing. 

This occasion is adduced as one of the few instances where Washington 
lost his temper and swore as an expert in his effort to avert the flight of his 
troops, who were demoralized from fatigue, loss of sleep, with probably in- 
sufficient food, and discouraged after the defeat at Long Island. The day 
was an excessively hot one, and Mrs. Robert Murray, of Murray Hill, whose 
husband was a Tory, but she in sympathy with the American cause, invited the 
British officers to rest during the heat of the day in her house. She exerted 
herself to such an extent to make them comfortable, that just time enough, 
and no more, was gained for the retreat of the American army past this point, 



Appendix 441 



along the wooded banks of the Hudson River. The English were so close in 
pursuit that Washington, in the rear with a portion of his staff, passed in the 
neighborhood of Seventieth Street, through the hall of the old Apthorpe house 
to the woods in the rear, under the guidance of Col. Aaron Burr, as those in pur- 
suit entered the front gate. From a military standpoint it is clear that these 
troops must necessarily have made their way in the most expeditious manner to 
McGowan's Pass and across the Harlem Flats, to gain protection within their 
own lines below Fort Washington, and that no halt was likely made unless to 
hold McGowan's Pass for a short time to protect the rear and stragglers. 
And yet a memorial tablet, I am informed, has been placed on one of the build- 
ings of Columbia University to commemorate the halt of these troops along 
the brow of a continuous declivity, from fifty to one hundred feet in height, 
as it was at that time ; there to await the attack of a victorious and superior 
force, after all possibility of retreat as a body was cut off, and with a certainty 
that these troops were without a commissariat ! If it were possible to assign 
any rational reason or purpose, under the circumstances, why the American 
troops shotdd hold any portion of this untenable line, it is certain that no body 
of troops, under the most perfect state of discipline,, would have risked the 
fortune of a battle in this place, without artillery and with a precipice in their 
rear. There is no evidence that additional troops were landed on Harlem 
Flats from either the Hudson or the East River, and it wotdd be absurd to 
suppose that the English deserted an advantageous position in front of the 
American forces in order to go by McGowan's Pass to the plain below with 
the purpose of making an attack by attempting to scale an almost inaccessible 
height ! An attack by the ravine near this point, as claimed, I know from my 
own knowledge of the locality would have been impossible, unless the troops 
to make the attack were landed at the ravine from boats. They could not 
have passed, before the railroad was built, along this shore for any distance 
on either side of the ravine. When I was a boy this point was a noted place 
for fishing, as the water was deep, with a steep bank, so that it was difficult 
for any one to pass except at low tide, and the passage was then further ob- 
structed by a number of boulders or rocks. 

I have never seen the diary of Lieut. Sam. Richards of a Connecticut 
regiment, from which you quote, but the Point of Rocks in front of the con- 
vent was then held by a Connecticut brigade, under Gen. Parsons, if my 
memory serves me, and a portion of this brigade we have stated was at Kipp's 
Bay, where the English landed. It would then seem that this portion of the 
army from New York had followed the course which, I claim, the whole 
army must have followed by retreating within their own lines, to the north 
of Harlem Commons. 

The following portion of Lieut. Richards's diary, as quoted by you, will 
I think show that the attack on the American line of entrenchments was to the 
north of the Harlem Flats, and by the ravine near Trinity Cemetery, as stated: 
"We then marched [from what point?] and took possession of the Heights 
of Harlem and immediately flung up lines for our defence. . . . We were 
employed the succeeding night in throwing up a slight entrenchment on the 



442 Incidents of my Life 

brow of the hill at Harlem Heights in full expectation of being attacked by 
the enemy in the morning. When the sun arose I saw the enemy in the plain 
below us, at the distance of about a mile, forming in a line. By account after- 
wards, their number was said to exceed twenty thousand, and they indeed 
made a brilliant display by the reflection of the sun's rays on their arms. 
The sharp action which took place that day under Col. Knowlton is so well 
detailed by the historian I need not repeat it. The enemy sent a detachment 
of about five thousand along the bank of the North River, which our people 
attacked with spirit and about in equal numbers and drove them back to 
their main body. . . . The next day I had a mournful duty assigned to me — 
the command of a covering party over the fatigue men who buried the dead 
who had fallen in the action the previous day. I placed myself and party 
on a small eminence so as to see the men at their work, and to discover the 
enemy should they approach to interrupt them." 

If the battle was fought above on the "University Heights," it might 
be asked on what small eminence did Lieut. Richards take his position, and 
by what route did his men reach the plain below to bury the dead? 

To the south and southeast of the high land on which Fort Washington 
was situated, there were a number of step-like hills, with more or less of a 
level or plateau space between them, and these extended around towards the 
Harlem River. I recollect distinctly seeing the remains of old earthworks at 
different points, and the line was to the north and somewhat above the Point 
of Rocks. In connection with the defence of the Point of Rocks, the Con- 
necticut troops were entrenched on one of these eminences, and if Lieut. 
Richards was with his command he must first have seen the advance of the 
enemy in line directly across the plain at the distance he states and at the 
foot of McGowan's Pass. From the same side as McGowan's Pass, the view 
would have been a limited one with all the timber removed about the foot of 
the Pass and there is no portion along the heights, in the neighborhood of 
the University, from which the front of the line of the British troops could have 
been seen while forming, moreover the distance would have been much less 
than that stated by Lieut. Richards. 

The main attack was an extended one along the line of entrenchments, 
including the Point of Rocks, on what I believe was termed the Harlem Heights 
at the time the battle was fought. In consequence of the extended line and 
the varied fortune of the day, it has never been known at what spot Col. 
Knowlton lost his life. The British troops were very severely handled and 
failed to gain a foothold on any of these eminences, from which they covdd 
not have been dislodged and everything south of the ravine would then have 
been captured. There exists no authority for supposing that any portion of 
the battle was fought on the plain below, but from Lieut. Richards's diary, as 
quoted by you, it would seem the dead were buried there under his super- 
vision, but the spot is unknown. 

'To the north of Manhattan ville and for some distance beyond the ravine 
at Trinity Cemetery, the water was shallow with a shelving beach, along 
which the British troops could have passed at any state of the tide. It is. 



Appendix 443 

however, doubtful that five thousand men ascended the ravine, because, 
before a foothold could have been gained, it is said that a bugle call was 
sounded as though for a fox-hunt, which at once brought upon the enemy an 
overpowering number of Americans. While it lasted this fight at the top of 
the ravine was doubtless the best contested hand-to-hand struggle of the 
Revolution. It is probable that before the whole number of the English 
reached the top they were divided so that those ascending were driven 
back to the west, and the portion already on top who were not killed, 
were driven down on the east side. As I have understood the plan of 
the battle, the object of those attacking by the ravine was a flank movement 
to finally get in the rear of the earthworks towards the southeast where the 
Americans were being assaulted from the plain below, and but for the arro- 
gance of the enemy in giving timely notice of their presence in this quarter, 
which would have been unexpected, the result would have been a brilliant 
one for the English. 

When I first heard of the battle of Harlem and talked to the old people I 
met, relics of the battle were to be found in almost every small farmer's house 
in the neighborhood. From my recollection more particularly of some sword- 
hilts and portions of sword-blades which were found on this spot I am led to 
believe that the clubbed musket of the American soldier at close quarters 
played an important part in the struggle. 

Nowhere on Manhattan Island, to my knowledge, beyond the limit of 
the city, have there been found the remains of so many English and Hessian 
soldiers, as shown by buttons, cross-belt buckles, bayonets, and portions of 
other arms, as have been excavated from time to time in the neighborhood 
of Trinity Cemetery. There could have been no fight at this point unless 
it was at the battle of Harlem, while the neighborhood about Columbia 
University, where it is claimed the battle was fought, has been particularly 
free from all such evidence. 

In looking through the Journals of Congress, edited by Mr. Worthington 
C. Ford, I found by accident the following (vol. vi., p. 851) : 

"Monday, Oct. 7, 1776 — 

"Resolved, That Gen'l Lee be directed to repair to the camp on the Heights 
of Harlem, with leave, if he thinks it proper, to visit the posts in New Jersey." 

This proves that I am correct in saying that all north of Harlem Flats 
was called Harlem Heights at the time and after the Revolution. When the 
change was made I do not know, but at some time it became desirable to 
locate the "Buckwheat Field" for the battle of Harlem Heights somewhere 
in the neighborhood of Columbia University; which region at the time of the 
encounter was, I believe, heavily timbered, notwithstanding the alleged exist- 
ence of the buckwheat field. It was not until after the battle of White Plains, 
and early in November, that any portion of the outworks of Fort Washington 
was abandoned by the Americans. These works were near King's Bridge, 
and were at once taken possession of by Knyphausen with his German bat- 
talions, and for the first time the English got a foothold on Harlem Heights. 

In this connection, I will state my belief that after all the excavating 



444 Incidents of my Life 

nothing can be judged at the present time with accuracy as to where this line 
extended at the time of the battle. When I was a boy the Point of Rocks 
extended so far to the south that it must have almost reached the line of the 
street now extending eastward from the foot of Claremont Heights. I recol- 
lect at one point on the road from Manhattan ville to Harlem, this Point of 
Rocks seemed almost to shut out the valley and view of Manhattanville. 

I did not state that the Americans were encamped on Morningside Heights, 
nor on any portion of the high land to the south of the plain. On the contrary, 
I labored to show they could have been nowhere else but to the north of the 
extremity of the Point of Rocks, and all I wrote was in relation to the article 
published in the Evening Post. If in this connection there be anything in 
Lieut. Richards's account as quoted in the Post which " fits in exactly " from 
the standpoint of these gentlemen, as to the fight being on the Morning- 
side Heights, it is certainly a mis- fit. I agree with them that the English 
troops, described by Richards as forming in line at sunrise at the foot of 
McGowan's Pass, were not likely to have attempted to scale Morningside 
Heights. The fact of this force being at the foot of McGowan's Pass goes 
to prove that they were there to cross the plain and make an attack on the 
American line, within which Richards's Connecticut regiment was stationed; 
and as he was with his regiment, which took part in the fight, it becomes evident 
that the battle was fought about the Point of Rocks. 

If Morningside Heights to Claremont, then held by the British, formed a 
part of Harlem Heights, and the American forces also held a portion of Harlem 
Heights to the north, it seems evident that the order to General Lee would have 
been more explicit. The resolution of Congress, passed October 7, 1776, was: 
"Resolved, That General Lee be directed to repair to the camp on the Heights 
of Harlem, with leave," etc. The wording can only be construed from a 
logical point, as showing that the heights below Fort Washington were the 
Harlem Heights, and there could have been no other Harlem Heights but 
those occupied by the American forces. 

The only foundation for any fighting on the heights to the south rests on 
an encounter lasting but a few moments. Knowlton, before daylight, was 
sent by Washington, with a single company of his command, to get on the flank 
of the British troops encamped on Vandewater Heights, and to reach that 
position by ascending the Hudson River bank at some distance to the south 
of the present grounds of Columbia University. Washington had received 
information that the enemy was forming in force at McGowan's Pass for an 
attack, and Knowlton was by this means to cause a diversion, if possible, 
with the object of retarding the general movement. Unfortunately, Knowl- 
ton's presence was discovered as soon as he reached the brow of the ascent, 
and he was forced to make a hasty retreat. Knowlton's party was followed 
down to the water by a body of the enemy, which crossed the valley to the 
north, and later in the day attempted a flank movement by ascending a 
ravine, and was repulsed as described in my paper. This encounter of Knowl- 
ton's at daylight on Vandewater Heights, I assert, can scarcely be termed a 
skirmish nor be considered as part of the battle of Harlem Heights, as the 



Appendix 445 



battle did not begin until late in the day, and lasted three or four hours. 
Moreover, the place of Knowlton's encounter was so far to the south of the 
Harlem line (possibly as far south as Ninety-fourth Street) as to render it 
impossible to show any connection with Harlem Heights, the grounds of 
Columbia University, or Momingside Heights. I do not propose, nor is it 
necessary, to enter into any further detail of the battle, my only purpose, as 
already stated, being to locate the Harlem Heights, on which and about which 
the battle of Harlem was fought. 

To show the confusion which exists as to this locality, even in the minds 
of Messrs. Hall and Bolton, I will quote a statement made in their paper: 
"The hill on which the most desperate fighting took place is identified by 
Major Lewis Morris, Jr. , who wrote to his father on September 28th : ' Monday 
morning an advanced party of Col. Knowlton's regiment was attacked upon 
a height a little to the southwest of Day's tavern. ' Day's tavern was on 
the line of the present One Hundred and Twenty- sixth Street, two hundred 
feet west of Eighth Avenue. This locates the fight on Momingside Heights," 
etc. I do not know what relation the site of Day's tavern may bear to 
Eighth Avenue, but I do know that it had no relation whatever to the noted 
buckwheat field near the Columbia grounds, nor to Momingside Heights. Mv 
recollection is quite clear in recalling the facts of the site of Day's tavern on 
the east side of the road, extending from McGowan's Pass, along the foot of 
the present Momingside Heights to King's Bridge. It was situated some dis- 
tance to the northeast of the Point of Rocks, and Morris's statement was 
correct. The Point of Rocks, and other intrenchments on the difEerent hills, 
forming the American line in this neighborhood, were "a little to the south- 
west of Day's tavern. " I believe the tavern was a mile to the north of any 
portion of Momingside Heights, and at this advanced point Knowlton with 
the Connecticut troops was stationed, in the most direct line for the enemy 
from McGowan's Pass. 

Having reached this point, I was prompted to consult Mrs. Lamb's His- 
tory of New York City, it being the only work in my present library from which 
I could obtain any information relating to the battle of Harlem Heights. 
To my satisfaction I found a tracing of Colton's map, which confirms the 
accuracy of my recollection in relation to the site of Day's tavern. In ad- 
dition, I found that in all essentials as to the wooded country, roads, etc., 
I had been accurate; a remarkable circumstance, as I have had to trust to 
the impressions made by my observation and historical studies at a period 
which would doubtless antedate the birth of either of these gentlemen. Col- 
ton's map shows, as I stated, that there was no road at this time from these 
heights to the valley, and that only a pathway existed from the Claremont 
Heights along the course of the Bloomingdale Road, which was not open in 
this neighborhood until after the Revolution. It does give, however, what 
was probably a farm road from Hoagland's house down into the King's 
Bridge Road, at about One Hundred and Tenth Street. After the Bloom- 
ingdale Road was extended to Manhattanville, this one was probably closed, 
as it did not exist within my recollection. 



446 Incidents of my Life 

Note XI 

See page j8i 

[Showing the Irish Parliament had the right of taxing imports from England. 
Duane's letter to Clinton, Philadelphia, 28 November, 1780.] 

Dear Sir: 

I last wrote your Excellency by General Scott. We have since received 
dispatches from Holland and have the satisfaction to find that Mr. Adams 
has received his powers to execute the trust reposed in Mr. Laurens, now a 
prisoner of war in England. 

The Claims of Ireland are still unsatisfied and they [Irish] passed an act 
to prevent, by a severe duty, the importation of unrefined sugar from England, 
insisting that it shall be brought directly from the Islands into their own ports ; 
and claiming in every other respect a perfect equality with what they call 
their Sister Kingdom. The Courtiers in that Parliament were averse to this 
measure, but the Patriot Counsellor Yelverton, told them that his argument 
should be concise. If they would not agree to it he would put himself at the 
head of the Associators. This is a mode of reasoning which proves irresistible. 

By the way, is it not the highest insolence that, while the claims of Ireland 

are submitted to from , and preparations to enforce them by arms, 

Americans are persecuted as Rebels for exercising the same Right? Holland 
continues to be rent into faction. The stadtholder, under British influence, 
restrains some of the Provinces from acting with vigor ; while the Republican 
party, in all, seem resolved to support our Cause, and are earnest for a close 
Alliance with us. 

In England the Crown has acquired additional strength by the misconduct 
of the people, headed by Lord George Gordon. It is said the late Elections 
have proved unfavorable to the patriots, and that several of the most dis- 
tinguished have lost their seats in Parliament. 

But it is a general opinion that the Convention of the Neutral powers 
will have a much greater effect upon the British Cabinet than the eloquence 
of angels. Lord Shelbourne, in their House of Peers, declared that it was 
to be taken for granted that the United States would be admitted to that 
Convention as an Independent people. Indeed all accounts agree that the 
Greater Powers of Europe are altogether advocates for our freedom ; and the 
ministerial writers in late publications whine and complain that all mankind 
are Ingrates, and that they are left without an ally to contend against France, 
Spain and America. They might add Ireland to the catalogue ; for the Libera- 
tion of that Kingdom will eventually press to the quick and lend to the de- 
struction of her [England's] commerce as much as any other cause. 

In the meantime they have manifested a servility in offering assistance 
to the Russian fleet, tho' armed merely to humble their maritime power, 
which cannot fail to render them contemptible. With the same low 
condescension they have endeavored to soothe and cajole the country of France 



Appendix 447 



and Spain, and seem prepared to sacrifice every sentiment of glory and every 
prospect of national advantage if America can be deserted and left to their 
vengeance. These Courts, however, seem decided to pursue the War; and 
France, in every event to maintain her alliance, besides the ties of Honour, 
their future safety, and a desire to recover the disgrace of the last War; 
both these nations are become responsible for their conduct to the Northern 
Powers; nor can anything justify them, to themselves or to the people, while 
these states by vigorously proceeding to establish their Freedom, call down 
the admiration and respect of Mankind. 

From intelligence out of our Capital it appears that the Enemy expressed 
great chagrin and disappointment on examining the new arrangement for 
the campaign which they intercepted. They had hoped, it seems, that we 
were too much broken to attempt a formidable opposition. If the views of 
Congress are seconded by the States, and the army supplies which we have 
requested partially produced, it is the general opinion that the Enemy will 
relinquish the American War and think seriously of preserving their remaining 
Dominions. One decisive effort will be of more avail than languid, pre- 
carious operations for years. But these reflections need not be made to your 
Excellency, who has long been impressed with the necessity of vigorous 
determination to expel the enemy. 

The late hurricane in the West Indies has produced such horrible devasta- 
tions that nothing equal to it has happened, perhaps, since the deluge. Only 
partial accounts have yet come to hand; but the tempest, continuing many 
days with unabated violence, it may be concluded that its effects have been 
dreadful to the Islands both windward and seaward. It must prove a fatal 
blow to Britain; but our ally has a great share in the calamity. The loss of 
shipping and lives must be prodigious. 

I cannot but say, excepting in the case of Vermont, that I never enjoyed 
so much satisfaction in the proceedings of Congress as at this time. There 
is a decision and a spirit in their measures which has become indispensably 
necessary. They have made all the preparations for the next Campaign with 
the utmost unanimity and to the entire satisfaction of the Commander-in-chief. 

I continue alone to represent the State. It is a confidence which I en- 
deavor to deserve by unremitted application and devoting my whole time to 
the public business. Habit and a great store of health make it tolerable; 
and a hope that I am serviceable to the country reconciles me to continue so 
long in a station on some accounts undesirable. The want of a decent support 
from the state is among the number of discouragements which give me disgust. 
There are others which must occur to your Excellency of a nature much more 
general and consequential. 

Be pleased to present my most respectfvil compliments to Mrs. Clinton, 
and au revoir. 

I have the honour to be, with the utmost respect and affection. Dear Sir, 
Your Excellency's most obedient and very humble servant, 

(Signed) James Duane. 
His Excellency Governor Clinton. 



448 Incidents of my Life 



Note XII 

See page 382 

[A letter to the New York Irish World — published Oct. 26, 1907 — giving some 

indication of the present feeling of the educated English people 

towards Ireland and Home Rule. Changes within 

the past generation.] 

5. 5. Celtic, Oct. 9, 1907. 
Editor Irish World : 

I went abroad late in the spring with no expectation of accomplishing more 
than a visit of a few weeks to my relatives. Parliament was in session when 
I arrived in London, but I was unwilling to inconvenience busy men by having 
them call on me. Consequently, as I was limited in my power of locomotion, 
I did not see any of the Irish leaders, nor, in fact, did I meet abroad any one 
particularly interested in Irish affairs. 

I spent more than a month in London and passed over two months in the 
Scotch Highlands during the grouse season, with the house filled with sports- 
men. I have seen and heard much of special interest, while more than a gen- 
eration has passed since I have had the opportunity of meeting a like number 
of educated Englishmen. 

I made it an object to obtain what information I could relating to Irish 
affairs from an English standpoint, and I was surprised to find that a great 
change in public sentiment had taken place. The number of individuals I 
met during my last and my previous visits was comparatively a limited one, 
I confess, upon which alone to base an opinion. But a few scattering straws 
are after all a better indicator of a passing current than a compact bundle, 
and especially valuable when in corroboration of other testimony. 

An intense and aggressive prejudice against the Irish people seemed to 
exist formerly among the upper class of Englishmen, and to a lesser degree 
as well against their religion. At the time of my previous visit, the aver- 
age Englishman, if he gave any thought at all to the Irish people, regarded 
them as a worthless set of drunken vagabonds, with whom nothing could be 
done save to hang them or drive them out of the country. In these very 
words, in fact, I have often heard such views expressed. The press of the 
period, as a reflection of the views of the public, will verify my statement. 
And at the same time the prof oundest ignorance existed in England regarding 
the political condition of Ireland. 

The English of to-day with whom I was thrown are but little better in- 
formed, and the subject of Irish affairs seems to be one seldom discussed 
among themselves. 

When I broached the subject I found a condition of perfect indifference 
with them all, and yet in but a single instance did I hear the expression of 
unkind feelings toward the Irish people. This exception was in the case of 
an army officer who, as soon as I made reference to the Irish people, pro- 



Appendix 449 



nounced them " a set of ruffians. " Upon showing him that he had no knowl- 
edge of the Irish people, he frankly confessed that he had based his supposed 
knowledge entirely upon what he had always heard in reference to them. I 
am satisfied that avoidance of expressing opinions was not due to my supposed 
sympathies ; for in their ignorance my connection with Ireland was unknown, 
and I was thought to possess merely the sentiments of an American whose 
ancestors had emigrated from Ireland at some remote period. 

With lack of evidence as to the cause, which however was possibly a result 
of the constant agitation by Irish leaders to educate the English people, I 
was surprised to find that almost every one freely admitted the fact that Ire- 
land had been misgoverned, and where it was necessary they thought a change 
should be made. But in the admission of a cause for complaint there was not 
the slightest expression of sympathy, nor of a desire to do justice by righting 
a wrong ; simply a change of methods was desirable if it could be safely made, 
as the easiest means of relief from what might prove an intolerable annoyance. 

It seemed to be generally taken for granted, after making such an ac- 
knowledgment regarding the past condition of misgovernment, that the issue 
in question should no longer exist, since no one of the present generation 
was responsible for the past and since nothing could be gained by the revival 
of old issues, especially when every loyal citizen of Great Britain now had the 
same advantage. That there was no appreciation among the Irish people 
of such advantages these gentlemen fully understood, but its absence was 
due to a cause evidently beyond their comprehension. When I pointed out 
that Irishmen had never enjoyed the advantages of British subjects, it was 
argued that, if so, it was due to their disloyalty, and that so long as this con- 
tinued there could be no change nor remedy in the future, but things must 
continue in the old rut. It was to little purpose that I attempted to show 
that the Irish people had never been conquered, and were not willingly a 
part of the British Empire; that their interests had never been considered, 
nor had there ever been a concession made save from necessity, and that 
therefore it seemed unreasonable to expect any loyalty until a different course 
was inaugurated. 

My recent experience confirms an opinion long held by me as to the im- 
possibility for an Englishman (or for an Irishman by birth with English 
sympathies) to understand the feelings of the majority of the people of Ireland. 
So foreign is the nature of the two people to each other that a co-ordination 
of oil and water is not more difficult. Mr. Gladstone made an effort to over- 
come the difiiculty, and to an extent that no one is likely to follow, and yet 
even his deductions, based on false premises, were often ill-defined. 

The knowledge gained from individuals in England would be of little im- 
portance if their views had not coincided to a remarkable degree with the 
general public opinion as shown by the daily press. With ample leisure, as I 
was unable to take part in the grouse-shooting, I studied closely the editorials 
and the communications made to the Times, the Telegraph, and Morning 
Post, published daily in London, together with several other papers issued 
in different parts of England. 

29 



450 Incidents of my Life 



Before detailing at greater length my deductions, it is important to refer 
to another great change which has taken place in England. Thirty years 
ago or more the general British feeling toward the United States was a near 
approach to one of contempt ; and, so far as an educated Englishman is capable 
of any effort at the humorous, it was shown by his constant inclination to place 
in a ridiculous light everything relating to the American people. With 
possibly some sentiment of jealousy still remaining, there is, however, through- 
out England and with all classes, a healthy appreciation of the power and 
important position held by the United States and our own people are thought 
to be but little different from themselves — -"Anglo-Saxon," of course, with 
possibly a few "Scotch- Irish"! This feeling of respect does not extend 
equally toward any other nation, and with this appreciation there is also a 
desire to be on good terms. 

A prevailing public opinion in the United States on any special subject 
or issue has certainly at the present time great weight in Great Britain, 
particularly among those in charge of public affairs. Hence the future 
benefit to Ireland's interests, and, what is of equal importance, the beginning 
of a realization that the Irish race in the United States is a potent factor to 
be considered in its influence upon the future relations of the two countries. 

In some form or other the "Irish question" in England seems now to 
block the way. While I have no more faith than formerly in the sincerity 
of any future philanthropic efforts on the part of the English Government in 
Irish affairs, I am impressed with the belief that necessity will solve the question 
of Home Rule and that one English party is as likely as the other to become 
its instrument. Moreover, it is my firm conviction that the present outlook 
is one of great promise for the future success of Ireland's aspirations. 

At no time within my association with Irish affairs has this promise seemed 
brighter, and only the Irish people themselves can destroy this prospect by 
permitting themselves to be goaded into an outbreak, giving thus an excuse 
for coercion. I believe this issue is most desired by certain members of the 
present government, since credit would then be claimed by themselves for 
forethought in not granting Home Rule, and, with the necessity for coercion 
claimed as their vindication, they would hope thus to weaken the power of 
the party in opposition. 

As there are a number of the Liberal party who honestly wish to con- 
ciliate the Irish people, and whose counsels were ignored in its policy toward 
Ireland, it is within range of practical politics for this party to retrace a 
course which has proved a false one from the beginning. If the Irish people 
can continue to hold their present position and thus afford the government 
no assistance, the future standing of the Liberal party must prove one without 
vantage, and not tenable. The unexpected should never be ignored in politics ; 
therefore Home Rule may yet be granted by the present party in office to 
strengthen its position, or, if its policy continue to be an uncertain and drifting 
one, the Tories will certainly soon return to power. 

Could I entertain any sentiment approaching sympathy with either of the 
English parties, it would be with the Tories; for an open enemy can be dealt 



Appendix 45] 



with on more certain terms than an uncertain friend, without the courage of 
his convictions. Judging from those I have met among the Tories, who seemed 
to have as little prejudice toward the Irish as any Englishmen could have, I 
believe Home Rule, or any other measure short of separation, would be 
freely granted Ireland by them, if the necessity therefor could be proved to 
their satisfaction. 

The same would of course be true of any party whose purpose was an 
honest one, but strange to state, I have found among the Tories actually a 
desire "to do the right thing" for Ireland, so far as their ignorance and preju- 
dice admitted of a judgment. The future must therefore be relied upon to 
prove this necessity. 

All governments are selfish, but the English one is particiilarly so in its 
policy, which is but a reflection of the trend of the majority of its people. An 
individual of family, position, or wealth, or in expectation of either, is educated 
in England, as a rule, by his social surroundings from childhood to feel the 
importance of his position and to give little thought to others in the gaining 
of his own comfort and advantage. This selfish training becomes the more 
pronounced as he advances in life. 

The Irish people owe a lasting debt of gratitude to Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
Biggar, who, with profound knowledge of the vulnerable nature of their 
antagonists, availed themselves in public life of such knowledge to the ad- 
vantage of the Irish cause. By their ingenuity and perseverance in the House 
of Commons, and elsewhere, a system of obstruction was developed aad a 
persistent effort was made for giving prominence on all occasions to Irish 
affairs. This course proved a grievous infliction for many in opposition. 

Mr. Redmond and those associated with him in Parliament have proved 
themselves experts in demonstrating the value of this line of tactics and its 
necessity as well, since the English as a race are less influenced by reason 
and argument as cause for changing preconceived opinions than any other 
people. The course thus followed by the Irish members was the more neces- 
sary, since nothing has ever been gained for the relief of the Irish people with- 
out having previously and literally worried the English members of Parliament 
into compliance. 

This compliance has always been due to a fear of the consequences of 
refusal wherever those in opposition could exert the power of retaliation, 
or else it was prompted by a desire to escape the annoyance attending a 
steadily maintained course of worrying, employed to ensure recognition. 
To the influence of one or both of these potent agents an English statesman 
can always in time be forced to yield. This effect is not due to any want of 
brute courage, but to the predominant desire to escape personal worry and 
annoyance from a subject with which he has no sympathy nor knowledge of 
its purpose, and which gives no chance for profit. 

In caricature John Bull has always been represented as thick in the girth, 
irascible in appearance, of a figure easily winded, and showing in feature 
a disposition ever ready to resent any interference with his personal comfort. 
This portraiture is supposed to represent an Englishman who has reached that 



452 Incidents of my Life 

period of life when he usually comes into his inheritance and greater importance 
from having charge of public affairs. Certainly this representation gives no 
indication of any susceptibility to the subtle influence of argument ; so my pen 
sketch of John Bull is within the meaning of the accepted picture. 

If I am correct in regard to the existence in England of a feeling of annoy- 
ance that such prominence should be given constantly to Irish affairs, a 
desire for relief must of necessity come in time ; and to gain therein any com- 
promise, short of dismemberment of the Empire, will be finally accepted, 
both by the government and by the English people. 

There was never a greater necessity than at present for keeping Irish 
affairs prominently before the public, even ad nauseam. There are many in 
England at present fully satisfied that eventually Home Rule must be granted 
to Ireland, and they are prepared to accept the inevitable when forced to take 
the initiative. 

An early knowledge by the Government of the intended organization 
of the party called the Sinn Fein [and it is possible that its establishment 
may have been made in the interests of the Government and with the 
hope of dividing the Irish people] did doubtless mislead the Government, 
if it did not itself, in regard to its importance; and this misunderstanding 
may be also responsible for the recent milk-and-water consistency of the 
last governmental offering towards the relief of Ireland. But all who have 
any accurate knowledge of Irish affairs have no fear of division at the 
present time, for the irish people were never more united. No political 
party nor movement in the United States, nor in England, nor in any 
other country can claim to have reached so nearly a unit as the Irish party 
in Ireland at the present time, and this union has continued for years in- 
creasing in strength. Differences must arise in every movement, and these 
should be fully discussed as the Irish people have done; but, when the 
majority has come to a decision, the minority must yield all individual 
opinion as the only means to secure success. 

I am free to acknowledge that when I left home and for some time previously 
I had lost all hope of the possibility of Home Rule for Ireland being gained 
in my lifetime. I had lost no faith in the honest effort of the Irish leaders, 
nor had I ever any doubt as to the final result being a favorable one for Ireland. 
I was, however, ignorant of what I now believe to be the true condition of 
affairs, and I returned home with a gain of strength both in body and in 
political faith. 

If the case be considered on its merits it seems unjust that a movement 
like the present one in Ireland should be criticised in regard to its results, 
when the game has yet to be played out to a finish. Bad as the present state of 
Ireland is known to be, no one ignorant of what it was previous to twenty 
years ago can now form any idea of how much has been gained by the per- 
sistent efforts of the Irish members of Parliament. Therefore, the subject is 
not worthy of discussion regarding the greater necessity now existing for keep- 
ing every Irish member of Parliament at his post for the protection of Irish 
interests. With the exception of an open outbreak in Ireland, it is believed 



Appendix 453 

no occurrence would now be more gratifying to some members of the Govern- 
ment than that Irish members should absent themselves from the House of 
Commons and thus leave their enemies freedom of action. 

Under no other circumstances nor in any other country has a people 
ever been more thoroughly represented than the Irish through the delegates 
selected by themselves to attend the several National Conventions held in 
Dublin of late years. With the utmost degree of dignity and order were the 
affairs of the country discussed, and this was done before deciding upon the 
adoption of a settled line of policy by the majority. Without a dissenting 
voice the last assembly, held within a few weeks, approved of Mr. Redmond's 
leadership and of the work of his associate members of the House of Commons, 
and it was shown, moreover, that the gratuitous service of these men had been 
rendered with a degree of personal sacrifice little known and little appreciated. 

If the course of any persons in Ireland is to be criticised it should be that 
of those individuals constituting a very small minority and claiming to be in 
sympathy with the cause of the Irish people, but who yet have done nothing 
towards carrying out the decision of the majority, but have, by their neglect 
or indifference, given as much support to every English interest as if they 
were in the pay of the government for that very purpose. 

I think I have a fair and accurate knowledge of the existing conditions 
of political affairs both in Ireland and in England. I therefore wish it were 
in my power to carry conviction and to prompt the English to act justly 
towards Ireland, simply in the English interest. 

Even with a vast majority of the Irish people detesting every relation 
with British rule, from the experience of centuries, I believe that Ireland 
at the present time could be conciliated. Her people are naturally of a 
forgiving disposition, and they might thus become a prosperous and peaceful 
portion of the Empire; but one condition alone can accomplish this result, that 
of Home Rule — the placing of the entire management of Ireland's internal 
affairs in the hands of her own people. No other concession will now or here- 
after make the Irish people contented to remain under the British crown. 
Moreover, this concession needs to be a voluntary act on the part of the English 
Government, made in a friendly and trusting spirit, to which the Irish people 
will promptly respond. It may be argued that this is exacting too much from 
a stiff-necked and unimpressionable people; but the Divine Law demands, 
in the end, retribution from nations as well as from individuals for violation 
of its precepts. Holy Writ, in addition, presents many examples where na- 
tions have suffered from not heeding its teachings of justice. Sooner or later 
England must pay tribute to the inevitable Law. 

From being a united people, determined to gain their object, the Irish 
through their perfect organization are in a stronger position to-day than they 
would be if a repeating rifle were in the hands of every man in sympathy with 
their cause. An appeal to arms might readily lead to defeat, but so perfect 
a union of public sentiment must become at length an irresistible power. 

It is now of little moment how far the Liberal party was pledged toward the 
granting of Home Rule; but its leaders, by their silence alone, previous to the 



454 Incidents of my Life 

last general election, are responsible for misleading the Irish people in their 
just expectations. Under these circumstances the last "peace offering" of 
the Government was an insult to the Irish people and a drivelling utterance 
in its pretensions to sagacious statesmanship. It but marked another oppor- 
tunity lost by England in the government of Ireland. It has deceived no one 
possessing any knowledge of the situation. It has shown the weakness of 
the present English administration, weakness from dissension within its own 
ranks, while the rejection of this bill by Ireland has commanded universal 
respect. No better evidence could be given of Irish orgaiuzation as well as 
of the faith of the people in the ultimate success of their present political 
course, than the rejection of this measure without a dissenting voice in the last 
Irish national assembly. 

A respect for a supposed existence of an average degree of understanding 
among those responsible for the passage of this bill prompts, in all charity, 
the opinion that its acceptance by the Irish people was neither desired nor 
expected. It is probable, in view of the evident lack of courage to seize a 
golden opportunity and to follow a course wisdom would have dictated, that 
the goverimaent perpetrated this sham merely to gain time. 

History but repeats itself in Ireland, since, unfortunately, England learns 
nothing from experience there. Therefore, as already stated, the probabilities 
are that in the near future another attempt at coercion, with all the official 
brutality of the past, is to be feared. 

England has yet to learn that Ireland cannot be conciliated, nor intimi- 
dated by brute force. The exercise of this power is as fruitless an expectation 
as would be the destruction of Ireland's rocky cliffs by the never-ceasing 
pounding of the sea, and the action of both these forces has been tested by 
the lapse of centuries. 

In the present temper of the Irish people I believe another attempt at 
coercion will forever wipe out every possibility of future conciliation. In- 
stead of the necessity for holding the people by the throat, as the policy of the 
past may be figuratively indicated, the Irish people, if again enraged by co- 
ercion, will have to be bound hand and foot forever in clear anticipation of 
what will take place when the English Government shall become discouraged, 
as heretofore, with its result, and relaxes the coercive restraint. The danger 
then would indeed be great that the Irish people, in their helpless condition 
of defence, might be forced to resort to means of retaliation to which humanity 
cannot give thought without a shudder. This danger does exist, and the 
English Government doubtless possesses a more accurate knowledge of this 
fact than any individual could obtain, therefore if coercion be forced again 
upon a long-exasperated people the responsibility for its results will rest upon 
the English. 

"God save Ireland" is a supplication which should be constantly on the 
lips of all who wish well to that afflicted country, and this prayer should be 
to save her from impending danger. 

During a period of nearly sixty years I have done all in my power to 
advance what I believe to be the best interests of Ireland. With each 



Appendix 455 



recurring disappointment I have still been strengthened in my belief that 
final success would come. For centuries the majority of the Irish people 
have shown a determination of purpose in their opposition to the misrule 
of England, and the irresistible nature of this opposition has never been ftilly 
appreciated. 

Many with whom I have associated have accomplished more than I have 
been able to do, but I will yield to no one in regard to my honesty of purpose. 
The possession of a certain degree of experience in Irish affairs, which enables 
me to judge of cause and effect, entitles me, I hope, to advice, or at least to 
render what I state worthy of consideration. I would therefore impress all 
in Ireland with the necessity, as well as the advantage to the National cause, 
of keeping strictly within the limits of the law. Every claimed violation of 
law will prove of service to the Government. I woiild urge all at home and 
abroad who hesitate, to cast aside every doubt of the efficiency of the present 
leaders of the National party and by so doing to give them moral support; 
and with equal confidence would I ask that they should be given all the financial 
aid possible. I am certain everything is being done as well as it possibly 
can be done and that the money affairs of the party are being managed with 
economy. It woiild be difficult to find any one who will have accomplished 
more than Mr. Redmond has, and every man connected with him is the right 
man in the right place. 

What I have gained during a long life has been chiefly through my 
own efforts, and I have found that the secret of success was not in specu- 
lating as to when or how soon an object may be obtained, but by a continued 
and undivided effort until the object in question has been reached. Such 
determination of purpose in any undertaking insures success, and without 
determination failure is inevitable. 

I am almost willing to yield to your judgment in Irish affairs. Should 
what I have written in the leisure of a sea voyage seem of sufficient import- 
ance for publication in the Irish World, it is at your service. 

Yours truly, 

Thomas Addis Emmet. 



Note XIII 

See page 407 
[From the Irish World.] 

Editor the Irish World : 

Dear Sir: I enclose a letter from Dr. Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, on an 
important subject, and it speaks for itself. Please publish, and give it a 
prominent place in your paper. 

Yours truly, 

Thos. Addis Emmet, M.D. 



456 Incidents of my Life 

Bishop's House, Queenstown, 

November 20, 1909. 

Dear Dr. Emmet: 

I received a few days ago your letter of inquiry regarding certain statements. 
made to you, and I hasten to reply to it. 

In your letter you write as follows : 

"It has so happened that recently several well-educated men have said 
to me that the Irish people can no longer be in such close relation with their 
priests as formerly existed. When I asked for the reason I have been told 
that the young men at Maynooth studying for the priesthood are obUged 
to take an oath before they can be ordained, as a pledge that they never say 
or do anything against the English Government." 

In reply, I beg to say that there is no truth whatever in this statement 
regarding Maynooth students. The students of Maynooth take no such 
oath, or promise, or undertaking. In this matter they are as free as any 
Irish student in any college in France, or Rome, or Louvain; or as any lay- 
student in any college or university in Ireland. 

You further state in your letter that your "educated" informants added 
"that this [oath] is exacted by the Government for paying for their educa- 
tion." This statement is also absolutely untrue. The college of Maynooth 
does not receive one penny of Government grant to pay for the education 
of its students or for the upkeep of the college, or for any purpose whatsoever. 

The gentlemen who made those statements to you cannot be "educated, " 
but on the contrary are very ignorant of the conditions on which clerical 
students enter and live in Maynooth College. 

Thirdly, you mention another statement of your informants, namely, 
"That at heart the priests of Ireland are secretly opposed to Home Rule, 
and that in consequence many of the people cannot give them their confidence 
as of old." Now the statement is opposed to the record which every day's 
experience supplies. You have only to read from day to day our Irish news- 
papers to see how earnestly the priests of Ireland advocate and demand 
Home Rule, and how persistently they subscribe, and encourage their people 
to subscribe, to the maintenance of the United Irish Parliamentary party, 
the first and chief point in whose programme is Home Rule for Ireland. The 
statement is ridiculous and absurd. 

The priests of Ireland do not countenance and never have countenanced 
secret societies ; neither are they in favor of disunion and dissension amongst 
those who are in earnest in working for Home Rule. Unfortunately, as you 
well know, disunion and dissension amongst Irish Nationalists has been too 
often in our history the cause of failure and ruin. 

Permit me to say that it was no friend of Ireland's best interests or Ire- 
land's Home Rule government, who made any of those false statements which 
have naturally grieved you, a staunch Irish patriot, to hear. 

I remain, dear Dr. Emmet, with much respect. 
Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, Yours very faithfully, 

89 Madison Avenue, New York. •^Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne. 



Appendix 457 

Note XIV 

See page 126 

After this work had passed into the possession of the publishers, I acci- 
dentally learned that the portrait of Fulton loaned to the Hudson-Fulton Com- 
mittee and claimed to be an original by Benjamin West, belonged to R. Fulton 
Cutting, Esq. On writing to Mr. Cutting for information, he kindly answered 
at length stating that it had come into his possession by inheritance, and by 
tradition was clearly proved to have been painted by West. I sent him a tran- 
scribed copy of the chapter from this work showing I claimed that Miss Eliza- 
beth Emmet had painted the only authentic portrait known of Fulton after 
reaching manhood and this portrait by Miss Emmet Fulton had copied in min- 
iature, thus showing his appreciation of it. In reply, Mr. Cutting honestly 
acknowledged that af tdr reading my statement his faith in the authenticity of 
his portrait was weakened, and he would have the matter investigated. 

I also sent him a copy of the Emmet engraved portrait of Fulton used by 
Colden in his work and of the engraved fraud by Delaplaine, claiming to have 
been taken from an original West, so that it could be clearly seen that both 
engravings were printed from the same plate. In his reply Mr. Cutting 
stated that his portrait and those held by Mr. Robert Fulton Ludlow and Mr. 
Church Osborne were all claimed as authentic portraits by West, and were of 
the same type or appearance as the engravings I had sent him. 

This being the case, and with the blowing up of the English ship off the 
English coast, near Deal, Oct. 15, 1805, with one of Fulton's torpedoes fired 
by himself, and shown in all these portraits claimed to have been painted 
by West, the subject is narrowed to the fact that none could have been painted 
before 1805. When Fulton visited England for the purpose of exhibiting his 
torpedo, he had lost all hope of being able to make any terms with France, 
and through some friend in England he was invited by the Government, and 
a vessel was placed at his disposal for the purpose. He had no confidence in 
the English Government and the visit was as an enemy, for he was known in 
England as a citizen of France and an enthusiastic supporter of the French 
Government. Moreover, he held a French commission and it was known he 
was to accompany the French army in the expected invasion of Ireland or 
England. The English were in the greatest dread of this new mode of warfare, 
and it was generally thought at the time that the invitation was extended 
with the hope of being able to secure Fulton's person after a knowledge of his 
secret had been obtained. England would have justified Fulton's imprison- 
ment on the plea of necessity for her own safety and to prevent France from 
gaining the advantage of his services. In addition, she woiild have claimed 
the right to arrest and imprison Fulton as a traitor, who had given aid to 
the enemy, as his father was an Irishman. England would have been so far 
justified, as she has never yielded the claim that children of a native of Great 
Britain continued to be her citizens without reference to their place of birth. 
The War of 18 12 was fought on this plea, and when peace was made she still 



458 Incidents of my Life 



refused to yield the point. The blowing up of the vessel was such a com- 
plete success that Fulton was summoned before a committee of lords with 
the view of purchase. Fulton would not agree to accept any price unless he 
was left free to render his service at any time to his country. There is every 
reason to believe that Fulton got out of the country without delay, as he was 
in France immediately after. He soon sailed for the United States, arrived 
in this country early in 1806 and it is not believed that he went abroad after- 
ward. It does not seem probable under the circumstances that Fulton met 
West, nor that he would have painted his portrait if desired, West being a 
personal friend of George the Third and a pronounced Tory. 

Fulton painted on Miss Emmet's picture a sketch of Fulton No. i, the 
keel of which was laid in June, 1814, and she was launched in February, about 
the time of Fulton's death. These facts settle the period within which Miss 
Emmet painted Fulton's portrait, and it was probably not done until after the 
vessel was sheathed. The only knowledge the world has ever had of the 
explosion was obtained from a sketch Fulton made and this was used by 
Delaplaine in 1817 on his fraudvilent plate. There does not seem to be the 
slightest evidence that West ever painted a portrait of Fulton and could not 
have done so except as a young man. I learn from Mr. Cutting that his por- 
trait shows the blowing up of the vessel, and Mr. Ludlow is ignorant of the 
history of his portrait, but it also shows the explosion. I have not been able 
to communicate with Mr. Osborne, but Mr. Cutting states that his portrait of 
Fulton was obtained from a dealer, that it has the same outlook, but is not as 
well painted as either of the others. It is evident that these paintings are 
copies made by some unknown portrait painter, and since 18 17, from Dela- 
plaine 's fraudulent engraving which was accepted in one generation as a copy 
of an authentic portrait by West, and in the next tradition claimed them as 
originals. The coloring in these portraits must be entirely guesswork. The 
miniature copy made by Fulton is now apparently the only authority for the 
color of his eyes, hair, and complexion. 

The original portrait of Fulton by Miss Emmet has apparently been lost. 
Francis has been dead for years and there is no means of ascertaining who 
purchased it. After an inquiry of nearly fifty years it seems impossible 
that it can be in the City of New York, unless it is held by some one ignorant 
of the subject and its history, and the same contingency may exist if it has 
been removed from the city. 

Note XV 

See page 378 
[Translation from the Latin of the Papal brief conferring the title of Knight 

Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.] 
POPE PIUS X. 

To his beloved son, Doctor Thomas Addis Emmet. 
Beloved Son : 

Health and Apostolic Benediction. We have heard, on the excellent 



Appendix 459 

authority of the Archbishop of New York, that you, a most distinguished 
member of the Medical profession, having long since embraced the true faith of 
Christ, have by your splendid gifts of mind and heart rendered the highest 
service to the Church, and deserve therefore to be rewarded by an honorable 
and illustrious title. 

In view of this. We absolve you from all excommunication, interdict, and 
any other ecclesiastical sentences, censures, and penalties which you may have 
incurred; and believing that you are free from all such. We hereby make, con- 
stitute, and name you a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the 
Great, of the civil class, and We inscribe you in the same illustrious body and 
number of Knights. 

However, We grant you, beloved son, the privilege of wearing the uniform 
distinctive of this order and degree of Knighthood, and likewise the corre- 
sponding insignia of the superior grade; to wit, a gold octagonal cross, bearing 
an image of St. Gregory the Great on a red surface, and suspended from the 
neck by a red silk band trimmed with yellow at the edges. 

That there may be no disparity either in the uniform or cross to be worn, 
We have given order that an appropriate design be forwarded to you. 

Given at St. Peter's, Rome, under the seal of the Fisherman's Ring on the 
twenty- seventh day of June in the year of our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and 
Six, and the Third of our Pontificate. 

Aloysius, Cardinal Macchi. 



Note XVI 
Chief Contributions to Medical Literature 

By Thos. Addis Emmet 

(Incomplete List.) 

Report of the Medical Board of the Emigrants' Refuge Hospital for 1854. 

"Calcareous Deposition on the Surface of the Heart, with Reference to 
the Manner in which the Blood is Propelled from that Organ." — New York 
Medical Times, 1855. 

"On (Edema Glottidis Resulting from Typhus Fever," etc. — American 
Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1856. 

"Silver Sutures and Ligatures." — American Journal of Medical Sciences, 
1859. 

"A Radical Operation for Procidentia JJteri."— New York Medical Times, 
1865. 

"Treatment of Dysmenorrhoea and Sterility." — New York Medical 
Journal, June, 1865. 

"Reduction of Inverted Uteri by a New Method."— Afnerican Journal 
of Medical Sciences, Jan., 1866. 

"Reduction of Inverted Uteri," etc.- — American Journal of Medical 
Sciences, April, 1866. 

"Accidental and Congenital Atresia of the Vagina, with a Mode of Oper- 
ating for Successftdly Establishing the Canal." — Richmond Medical Journal, 
Aug., 1866. 

"Inversion of the Uterus with a New Mode of Procedure to be Adopted 
as a Last Resort." — American Journal of Medical Sciences, Jan., 1868. 

Vesica- Vaginal Fistulce from Parturition and other Causes, with Cases of 
Recto-Vaginal Fistulce. 8vo, pp. 250. W. Wood & Co., New York, 1868. 

"Surgery on the Cervix, " etc. — American Journal of Obstetrics, Feb., 1869. 

"Inversion of the Uterus, etc." — American Journal of Obstetrics, Aug., 
1869. 

" A Case of Ovariotomy — the Pedicle Secured with Wire by a New 
Method." — American Journal of Obstetrics, Feb., 1870. 

460 



Appendix 461 



"A Rare Form of Spina Bifida, " etc. Presenting features in common with 
an ovarian cyst. — American Journal of Obstetrics, Feb., 1871. 

"Prolapsus Uteri, Its Chief Causes and Treatment." — New York Medical 
Record, 1871. 

"Chronic Cystitis in the Female and a Mode of Treatment." — American 
Practitioner, Louisville, Feb., 1872. 

"Laceration of the Perinseum, Involving the Sphincter Ani, and Operation 
for Securing Union of the Muscle. " — New York Medical Record, March, 1873. 

"Philosophy of Uterine Disease," etc. — New York Medical Journal, July, 
1874. 

"Laceration of the Cervix Uteri, as a Frequent and Unnecessary Cause of 
Disease. " — American Journal of Obstetrics, Nov., 1874. 

"Treatment and Removal of Fibroids from the Uterus by Traction." — 
Transactions of the Medical Society of New York, 1875. 

"Risse des Cervix Uteri," etc. — Berlin, 1775 — Uehersetzt von Dr. M. 
Vogal. 

"Etiology of Uterine Flexures with the Proper Mode of Treatment Indi- 
cated." — Transactions of the American Gynaecological Society, for 1876. 

"Congenital Absence and Accidental Atresia of the Vagina." — American 
Gynecological Society Transactions, 1876. 

"Proper Treatment of Lacerations of the Cervix Uteri." — American 
Practitioner, Jan., 1877. 

"Removal of Fibrous Tumors from the Uterus by Traction," etc. — ■ 
American Journal of Obstetrics, Jan., 1877. 

"In Memoriam — Edmund Randolph Peaslee." — American Journal of 
Obstetrics, etc., April, 1878. 

" Congenital Absence and Accidental Atresia of the Vagina." Gynaeco- 
logical Transactions, 1878. 

The Principles and Practice of Gynaecology. With one hundred and 
thirty illustrations. 8vo, pp. 855. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co., 
1879. 

The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology. With one hundred and thirty 
illustrations. 8vo, pp. 855. London: J. & A. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, 1879. 

The Principles and Practice of GyncBCology. Second edition. Thoroughly 
revised, with one hundred and thirty-three illustrations. 8vo, pp. 875. 
Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co., 1880. 

The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology, etc. London : J. & A. Churchill, 
New Burlington Street, 1880. 

Principien und Praxis der Gyncekologie. Von Thomas AddisEmmet, M.D., 
Arzt am Frauenspital des Staates New York, etc. Nach der Zweiten Auflages 
des Originals Deutsch Herausgegeben von Dr. C. G. Rothe, Pract. Arzt in 
Altenburg. 8vo, pp. 576. Leipzig: Verlag Von Ambr. Abel, 1881. 

"A Study of the Etiology of Perineal Lacerations, with a New Method 
for its Proper Repair." — Transactions of the American Gynaecological Society, 
1883. 



462 Incidents of my Life 



The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology. Third edition. Thoroughly 
revised, with one hundred and fifty illustrations. 8vo, pp. 876. Philadel- 
phia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co., 1884. 

The Principles and Practice of Gyncecology, etc. Third edition. London: 
J. & A. Churchill, New Burlington Street, 1884. 

"A Memoir of James Marion Sims, M.D., LL.D." Read before the N. Y. 
Academy of Medicine, Jan. 3, 1884. — New York Medical Journal, Jan. 5, 1884. 
"Pelvic Inflammation, or Ce\\vl\t\s versus Peritonitis." — Transactions of 
the American Gyncecological Society, 1886. 

"Prolapse of the Vaginal Walls, Due to Laceration of the Cervix and 
Injury to the Vaginal Outlet." — The Medical News, Jan., 1886. 

"On Certain Mooted Points in Gynecology." Read before the British 
Medical Association in Brighton. — British Medical Journal, Nov. 13, 1886. 

"A Study of the Cause and Treatment of Uterine Displacements." — 
Transactions of the American Gynaecological Society, 1887. 

La Pratique des Maladies des Femmes par Th. A. Emmet, etc. — Ouvrage 
traduit sur la troisieme edition et annot6 par Adolphe Olivier, etc., avec 
une preface par M. le Professeur U. Trelat, avec 220 figures intercalees dans 
le texte. Paris: J. B. Bailliere et Fils, 8vo, pp. 860, 1887. 

"On the Use of the Vaginal Tampon in the Treatment of Certain Effects 
Following Pelvic Inflammation." — New York Medical Journal, Feb. 18, 1888. 

"Tracheotomy without a Cannula." — New York Medical Journal, June 
2, 1888. 

"The Causes and Treatment of Urethrocele." — Transactions of the Amer- 
ican Gyncecological Society, 1888. 

"Laceration of the Cervix Uteri and the Indications for its Restoration." 
Read before the Ontario Medical Association, Toronto, Canada, June 11, 
1890. — The Canadian Practitioner, Aug., 1890. 

"Rectocele: Its Causes and Cure." Development of the operation at the 
Woman's Hospital. — American Journal of Obstetrics, etc. No. 7, 1890. 

"Injury to the Pelvic Floor and the Method of Repairing the Same." — 
Transactions of the American Gynaecological Society, 1891. 

"Inclined Decubitus — An Important Aid in the Treatment of the Diseases 
of Women." — New York Journal of Gyncecology and Obstetrics, Feb., 1892. 

"Reminiscences of the Founders of the Woman's Hospital Association." 
— New York Journal of Gyncecology and Obstetrics, May, 1893. 

"Success in Gyncecological Plastic Surgery." — New York Journal of 
Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Feb., 1893. 

"In Memoriam— Charles Carroll Lee, A.B., A.M., M.D., LL.D."— iVeze^ 
York Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, June, 1893. 

"Reminiscences of Dr. Thos. Addis Emmet." — The Medical News, Nov. 
18, 1895. 

"Incurable Vesico-Vaginal Fistula, a New Method of Treatment by 
Suprapubic Cystotomy." — The American Journal of Obstetrics, No. 5, 1895. 

"The Use of Traction and Morcellation in the Removal of Fibroids versus 
Hysterectomy." — American Gynaecological and Obstetrical Journal for 1895. 



Appendix 4^3 

"When to Amputate in Preference to the Repair of a Lacerated Cervix by 
the Usual Method." — Reprinted from the American Gyncecological and 
Obstetrical Journal for September, 1897. 

"England's Destruction of Ireland's Manufactures, Commerce, and Popu- 
lation. A lecture given at Cooper Union, to the New York Branch of the Irish 
National Federation of America, Feb. i, 1897. 

"Ireland's Past and Future." — Donahoe's Magazine, Boston, 1897. 

The Emmet Family, with Some Incidents Relating to Irish History and a 
Biographical Sketch of Prof. John Patten Emmet, M.D., and Other Members 
Privately printed. Edition 130 copies, 4to, pp. 411. 95 portraits and other 
illustrations. New York, 1898. 

"Irish Emigration during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.' 
Read before the American-Irish Historical Society. — Transactions, vol. ii. 
1899. 

"Reminiscences of the Founders of the Woman's Hospital Association.' 
(Part second with additional material. )^American Gyncecological and Ob 
stetrical Journal for April, 1899. 

"Personal Reminiscences Associated with the Progress of Gynaecology.' 
— American Gyncecological and Obstetrical Journal, May, 1900. 

Ireland under English Rule, or a Plea for the Plaintiff. New York 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1903. 8vo, vol. i., pp. 333; vol. ii., pp. 359. 

"Some Popular Myths of American History." — The Magazine of History, 
with Notes and Queries, Feb., 1905. 

The Birthday Dinner to Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., LL.D., Given by his 
Professional Friends, at Delmonico's, New York, May 29, IQ05, etc. Bradstreet 
Press, 1905, 8vo, pp. 176. 

"The Battle of Harlem Heights." — The Magazine of History, with Notes 
and Queries, etc. Sept., 1906. 

Ireland under English Rule, or a Plea for the Plaintiff. By Thomas Addis 
Emmet, President of the Irish National Federation of America, Knight Com- 
mander, Order St. Gregory the Great. Second edition and in a large part 
rewritten. Vol. i., portrait of Parnell, pp. 393. Vol. ii., portrait of John E. 
Redmond, pp. 393. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 8vo, 1909. 

Introduction and Account of the Mecklenburg Convention, the Passage, Sign- 
ing, and Publishing of the Declaration of Independence. Sm. folio, pp. 18, 
New York, 1876, of which there were but two copies printed. 

Other volumes are in the Emmet Collection, Lenox Library, as the 
Annapolis Convention, The Members of the Continental Congress, etc. in- 
cluding some series of which there was but one copy printed. 



Note XVII 

Honors Conferred, and Positions Held in 
Hospitals, etc. 

(An imperfect list.) 

Graduate in Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, March, 
1850. 

Resident Physician, Emigrant Refuge Hospital, Ward's Island, New York, 
1850. 

Appointed Sept., 1852, Visiting Physician to the Emigrant Refuge Hospital 
and began the practice of medicine in the City of New York. 

Assistant Surgeon to the Woman's Hospital Association, May, 1855. 
Surgeon-in-Chief in the Woman's Hospital, 1862. Visiting Surgeon to the 
Woman's Hospital in the State of New York, 1872. Resigned, 1900. 

Consulting Physician to the Roosevelt Hospital, New York. 

Consulting Physician, New York Foundling Asylum, New York. 

Consvilting Surgeon, St. Andrew's Infirmary for Women, New York. 

Consulting Gynaecologist, St. Vincent's Hospital, New York. 

President of the New York Obstetrical Society. 

President of the American Gynaecological Society. 

President United States Catholic Historical Society. 

Vice-President twice of the Medical Society of the County of New York. 

Member of the Board of Managers of the Institution for the Blind, New 
York City, in 1866. 

President of the Irish National Federation of America while it existed, 
from May, 1891, until Mr. Redmond's election, 1901. 

Hon. President of the Robt. Emmet Branch of the Irish National Federa- 
tion of Ireland in Clondalkin, County Dublin, Ireland. 

Received in 1882 the Degree of LL.D. from the Jefferson Medical CoUege, 
Philadelphia. 

Received in 1899 the Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame 
of Notre Dame, 111. 

Dec. 19, 1906, received the insignia of the Knight Commanders of the 
464 



Appendix 



465 



Order of St. Gregory the Great, from the Holy Father, Pope Pius X., and 
invested by the Most Rev. Archbishop Farley, of New York. 

Member of Medical Societies 

Permanent Member, Medical Society of the State of New York. 
Member of the Medical Society of the County of New York. 
" " New York Academy of Medicine. 
" " Pathological Society of New York. 
" " Obstetrical Society of New York. 
" " Alumni Association of the Woman's Hospital. 
" " American Medical Association. 
" " College of Physicians, Philadelphia. 
" " British Medical Association. 
" " Medical Society of Norway. 
" " " " " the State of Connecticut. 

" " " " " New Jersey. 

" " " " " London, England. 

" " Obstetrical Society of Berlin. 

" " " Brussels. 

" " " " " Boston. 

" " " " " Chicago, 111. 

" " " " " Dublin, Ireland. 

" " " " " Detroit. 

" " " " " Edinburgh, Scotland. 

" " " " " Louisville, Ky. 

" " " " " Little Rock. 

" " " " " Washington, D. C. 

" " " " " Philadelphia. 

Gynaecological Society, London, England (recently in- 
corporated with the London Obstetrical Society) . 



" What he bids be done is finished with his bidding," 



Coriolanus, 



Index 



467 



Index 



Aberdeen, Lord, entertained publicly and 

privately on occasion of visit to New York, 

285 
Academy of Music, New York, first charity 

ball, 165; mass meeting in sympathy with 

Home Rule at, 288-289 
Act of the Union, England and Ireland, 380 
Adams, John, 55 
Adams, John Quincy, 53, 57 
AddiS; Thomas, 67 
Agassiz, Louis, no 
Alabama, the, 168 
Allen, Andrew, 123 

Allen, Mr., family of, lost in the Arctic, 150 
American Gynecological Society of Philadel- 
phia, meeting of, in 1878, 232 
American Medical Association, the, 132 
American Revolution, influence of men of 

Irish birth or parentage in, 423^ 
Andersonville prison, conditions in, 188 
Andr6, Major John, destruction of letters of, 

217; capture of, 217 
Anthon, Rev. Dr., 82 
Arcade, the Philadelphia, purchased there a 

Continental note, the beginning of the 

"Emmet Collection," 60 
Arians, the, 226 

Astor House, New York City, 67 
Astor, Mrs. John Jacob, work of, in behalf of 

Woman's Hospital, 195-196 
Astor Place riots, 130 



B 



Baker, Dr. W. H., 362; address of, at dinner 

to Dr. Emmet, 363-364 
Bankhand, Colonel, 17 
Barbour, Thomas, 264 
Bard, Dr. John, 116 
Barker, Dr. Fordyce, 170 
Barnum, P. T., 63, 144 
Battle of Harlem Heights, see Harlem 

Heights, Battle of 
Bayard House, New York, 94 
Bayard, "Tom," affectionate regard for, in 

school days and throughout life, 82, 83 
Beekman, James W., 322 
Belmont, August, Sr., 92 



Belmont, Mrs. August, 62 

Benjamin, Walter R., 308 

Bennett, James Gordon, 129 

Benton, Thomas R., 53 

Berlra Obstetrical Society, honors Dr. Emmet, 
231 

Bermuda, details of visit to, in 1853, 154 ff. 

Bethune, Rev. Dr. G. W., no 

Bibby, Dr. , head of the Van Courtland family, 
150 

Biggar, Francis J., 347 

Biggar, Joseph G., contrasted with C. S. 
Parnell, 279 

Bill of Rights, the Mason, 55 

Bingham, William, 59 

Blackwell, Dr. Emily, 358 

Blackwood, Sir J. G. (later Lord Dufferin), 
66 

Blake, Edward, M.D., addresses meeting at 
Lyceum, New York, 296 

Blaettermann, Professor, 45; remarkable 
entertainment given by his successor, 45 
46 

Bliss, George, 321 

Bloomingdale Episcopal Church, 91 

Bonaparte, Jerome, 69 

Bonaparte, Madame Jerome, 69 

Bonnycastle, Professor John, 44 

Bowdoin, Governor, 66 

Bowdoin, Miss, 58 

Bradstreet Co., founding of the, 219 

Brennan, Margaret, Chief Nurse in Woman's 
Hospital, 196-197 

Brewster, Benjamin H., U. S. Attorney- 
General under President Arthur, 1 13-1 14 

Broadway, proprietor of "Broadway's mar- 
ket," 151 

Broadway's market. New York, 151 

Brophy, John P., 438 

Brown, Sexton of Grace Church, 166 

Browne, Dr. Robert, Bishop of Cloyne, Ire- 
land, letter of, to Dr. Emmet. 389; letter 
of, to Dr. Emmet concerning political statu- 
of men educated for the priesthood in Mays 
nooth College, 407 ; text of letter, 456 

Bulloch, Capt. James D., 168 

Burke, Secretary for Ireland, murder of, 298 

Burke, Sir Bernard, 269 

Burr, Aaron, 36; suffered from misjudgment, 
218; destruction of papers of, 218; duel of 
with Alexander Hamilton, 218 



469 



470 



Ind 



ex 



Butler, General Benjamin F., i86 
Byrne, Major John, 282, 290 



Calhoun, John C, 53 

Campbell, St. George, 132 

Campbell, John A., Judge of Supreme Court 

of U. S., 159 
Cancer, mortality from, in New York City in 

1909, 196 
Carnochan, Dr. J. M., 146 
Carrington, Col. Edward, 36 
Carrington, Col. Paul, 36 
Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, origin of 

appellation, 57 
Carroll, Rev. Patrick, 347 
Castle Garden in 1850, 143; Jenny Lind at, 

Catherine, the, brig, wreck of, 85 

Catholic Church, historical bans for exercise 
of authority of, 225 ff.; divine commission 
of, 225 

Catholic hospitals, management of, 338, 339 

Catholic, reasons for becoming a, 225 

Catholics of Ireland have always been toler- 
ant, 427 

Cato house, in the grounds of which probably 
Nathan Hale was hanged, 89, 90 

Cavendish, Lord, murder of, 298 

Chandelier, Mr., Dublin photographer, 269 

"Cheap money," never an indication of 
prosperity for the people at large, 399 

Chemistry of Animated Matter, The, graduation 
thesis of Dr. J. P. Emmet, no 

Cholera in New York in 1854, 162-163 

Circular dealing with conditions in Ireland, 
issued by Dr. Emmet when appointed 
President of the National Federation of 
America, 42 1-423 

Civil War, in the United States, the, beginning 
of, 177 #•; cost of, met by one third specie 
and two thirds credit, 398; financial condi- 
tions resulting from, 398 

Clark, J. I. C, 126 

Clay, Henry, 53 

Clinton, George, Governor of New York, 56; 
letter of James Duane to, November, 1780, 
showing that Irish Parliament had the 
right of taxing imports from England, 446- 
447 

Clinton, General Sir Henry, 89 

Cloyne, Bishop of, 389, 407, 456 

Clymer, Dr. Meredith, 200-201 

Cockran, Bourke, address of, at Academy of 
Music, 289 

Coe, Dr. Henry C, 357, 373-374 

Coercion Acts in Ireland, the consequences 
of, 274-275 

Cold storage of food, present system of, a 
menace to both the purse and the health 
of the people, 402 ff. 

Colden, C. D., author of Life of Robert Fulton, 
122 

Coleman, James, 282 

Coles, Edward, governor of Northwest Terri- 
tory, 42 

Colton, Rev. Father, later Bishop of Buffalo, 
352 



Conway, Dr. Edwin, 73, 74 

Cooke, George Frederick, 65 

Cooper Union, mass meeting of Irish Federa- 
tion at, March 22, 1892,285; disturbance at, 
quelled by police, 286 

Corrigan, Archbishop, 285; presents Laetare 
Medal to Dr. Emmet, 313 

Crane, John, loyalty of, to Irish cause, 309 

Crirnmins, John D., 269; elected treasurer of 
Irish National Federation of America to 
succeed Eugene Kelly, 301, 324 

Croker, Richard, 324-325 

Cromwell, Oliver, 396 

Croton water introduced into New York in 
1842, celebration attending, 93^. 

Cullum, General G. W., 220, 235; accom- 
panies Dr. Emmet on European trip, 243,^. 

Cullum, Mrs. G. W., 196 

Cimard, Sir Edward, secures letters of Major 
Andre, 217, 218 

Cusack, Right Rev. Bishop, 378 

Cutting, Robert Fulton, 126, 457 

D 

i Daguerreotype instrument, probably first 
j one imported to America, received by Dr. 

J. P. Emmet, 74 
I Dallas, George M., Vice-President of the 
j United States, 113 
Daly, Charles P., 264 
Davis, Col. George T. M., 321 
Davis, Colonel Jefferson, later President of 
Confederate States, at battle of Monterey, 

Davis, Thomas, the Irish poet, 395, 396 

Declaration of Independence, history of, 55^. 

de Grasse, Count, Admiral of French fleet 
'1 during American Revolution, 116 

Delaplaine , publisher of Repository of 

Eminent Men, commits fraud in connection 
with portrait of Robert Fulton, 122^. 

de Vere, Aubrey, 233, 395 

Dickens, Charles, 106, 107 

Dillon, John, 276; on release of, from prison, 
takes advice of Dr. Emmet in opposition 
to Parnellites, 284; acknowledges im- 
portance of American aid, 290-291 

Dinner to Dr. Emmet on the occasion of his 
seventy-seventh birthday, 358^. 

Doremus, Mrs. T. C, work of, in behalf of 
Woman's Hospital, 195 

Draft, in New York, during Civil War, the, 
183; discrimination against Democrats in, 
183; treatment of the Irish in, 184; riots 
owing to, 184, 185 

Drexel, Mrs. Lucy Walton, the possessor of 
a miniature portrait of Fulton, copied by 
himself from Miss Emmet's painting, which 
is likely now the only authentic colored 
portrait of him in existence, 127 

Duane, James, 38 J ; letter of, November, 1780, 
to Gov. Clinton showing that the Irish 
Parliament had the right of taxing imports 
from England, 446-447 

Dublin Freeman's Journal, letter of Dr. 
Emmet to, in relation to dissensions among 
Irish members of Parliament, 429-432 

Dublin, Mansion House Committee of, for 
Irish relief in U. S., 264 



Ind 



ex 



471 



DuBois, Mrs., founder of the Nursery and 
Child's Hospital, 164 

Ducachet, Rev. Dr. Henry William, no 

Dudley, Dr. E. C, address of, at dinner to 
Dr. Emmet, 359 

Dufferin, Lord, 66 

Duncan, Catherine R., see Mrs. Thomas 
Addis Emmet 

Duncan, Miss Eliza, 149, 177 

Duncan, James, 187-188 

Dunglison, Dr., 44; advises author to study 
medicine, 108, 109; hospitality of , 109 

Duponceau, Colonel, served through Revolu- 
tionary War and appointed Assistant 
Secretary of State, no 

E 

Edgar, Robert, 168-169; takes party on a 
cruise in yacht Widgeon, 170 

Education in public schools, criticism of 
present system in, 250-252 

Edwards, Monsignor, 378 

Eggs, cold storage destroys value of, as article 
of food, 404 

Eliot, Ellsworth, 358 

Ellsler, Fanny, 72 . 

Elysian Fields, Hoboken, 67 

Emigrant Refuge Hospital, New York, the, 
opening of, 135; importance of work of, 
136 #.; change in administration of, 163 

Emigrant ships, disgraceful conditions on, 
138/. 

Emmet, meaning of name, i 

Emmet, Dr. Bache McE., 321 

Emmet, Christopher Temple, 2, 66; grave of, 
350 

Emmet, C. Temple, U. S. N., 370 

"Emmet Collection. " in New York Public 
Library, 220, 308 

Emmet, Elizabeth, painted the only authen- 
tic portrait of Fulton, which was attributed 
to West by Delaplaine, when engraved for 
the Repository. The original painting 
has disappeared for over fifty years, and 
has been probably lost or destroyed, 122 ; 
see LeRoy, Mrs. Wm. H. 

Emmet Family, The, 269; cited, 256; purpose 
of, 310 

Emmet, Jane, sister of Dr. Emmet, marries 
John N. A. Griswold, 169 

Emmet, Dr. John Duncan, 353 

Emmet, Dr. John Patten, father of Thomas 
Addis Emmet, 2; invents device for making 
sewing silk, 14, 15; beneficial effect on son 
of his companionship, 18, 19; imports a 
pair of rubber boots and a daguerreotype 
instrument, 74; returns from Florida, 
and by accident misses steamer to New 
York, which failed to reach port, 84, 85; 
dangerous voyage to New York in the 
Catherine, 85; sketches of early New York 
by, 94, 95; death of, 96, 97; graduation 
thesis of, on The Chemistry of Animated 
Matter, no; his son's work Principles and 
Practice of Gynecology dedicated to memory 
of, 262 

Emmet, Mrs. John Patten, mother of Dr. 
Emmet, 2, 8; collection of plants of, 169; 
death of, 169 



Emmet, Lydia, daughter of Robert, nS 

Emmet, Miss Margaret, aunt of author, 
74 

Emmet, Dr. Robert, 66; services of, m St. 
Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, 66, 67; author 
of a work on Some of the Diseases of 
Women, in 1742, 252 

Emmet, Robert, Jr., son of Judge Emmet, 
marriage of, to Catherine James, 117-118 

Emmet, Judge Robert, 60; first president of 
Irish Repeal movement, 128, 370 

Emmet, Robert, Irish martyr, death-mask of, 
taken by Mr. Petrie, 269; efforts to locate 
grave of, 343 ff. 

Emmet, Robert, son of the author, 347 

Emmet, Thomas Addis, grandfather of 
author, 2,61; imprisoned at Fort George, 
Scotland, as a leader in 1798, 238; monu- 
ment in New York City erected to, 64; 
secures release of Irishmen sentenced for 
rioting in connection with parade of 
Orangemen, July 12, 1824, 256; silver 
pitcher presented to, in recognition of 
services connected with the rioting, 257; 
Charles G. Haines's tribute to, 257-258; 
recollections of A. S. Hewitt, of death and 
funeral of, 311-312 

Emmet, Mrs. Thomas Addis, grandmother of 
author, 64 

Emmet, Thomas A., uncle of author, 85; 
his eight boys and their pranks, 86 ff.; 
Master in Chancery, 149; "spiritual 
awakening" of, 170-171 

Emmet, Thomas Addis, ancestry, i, 2; birth 
and early childhood, 2 ff.; first school at 
Charlottesville, 5 ff.; Mrs. Grant's dire 
prophecy, 9; becomes an expert quill- 
pen maker, 9; family moves to Morea, 
18; beneficial effect of father's companion- 
ship, 18, 19; journey to lower Virginia by 
coach, 29/. ; narrow escape from drowning, 
33; visit to New York City, 46; first railroad 
journey, 47; visit to Washington city, 49; 
visits the Capitol, 53; sees the original Dec- 
laration of Independence, 54; early im- 
pressions of Philadelphia, 59, 60; purchases 
a Continental note, 60; early recollections 
of New York City, 60 ff. ; summer at Rock- 
away, L. I., 68; recollections of Madame 
Elizabeth Bonaparte, wife of Jerome Bona- 
parte, 69; early New York theatres, 71, 72; 
journey by steamboat to Hartford, Coim., 
75; sent to school at St. Thomas's Hall 
near Flushing, 76; illness at, 77; receives 
last letter from his father, 79; St. 
Thomas's school suddenly breaks up, 
86; visits Uncle Thomas at Mt. Vernon, 
87; joins his eight male cousins in divers 
escapades, 86 #.; a memorable duck- 
shooting expedition, 88; visits his uncle, 
Bache McEvers, at Mont Alto, 91; first 
formal dinner, and what occurred, 92; 
learns value of dictionary, 92; returns to 
Virginia on death of father, 97; goes to 
New York to enter business, 98 ; experiences 
in his uncle's counting-house, 99 ff. ; returns 
again to Virginia and enters the University, 
103; treated unjustly by the Faculty and 
dismissed, 103; again returns to New York, 



472 



Index 



Emmet, Thomas Addis ( Continued) 

105; declines appointment to West Point, 
106; meets William M. Thackeray, 106; 
being in doubt concerning career, appeals 
to Dr. Dunglison, as to advisability of 
studying medicine, 108-109; enters the Jef- 
ferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 109; 
hospitality of Dr. Dunglison, no; meets 
many distinguished men at his house, no; 
student life in Jefferson College, 1 13; friend- 
ship of the Dallas family, 113; lasting effect 
of Dr. Wallace's advice concerning surgical 
operations, 115; early friendship with Dr. 
S. Weir Mitchell, 115-116; takes an active 
interest in Irish Repeal movement, and in 
Young Ireland movement, 128; goes to 
fancy ball in New York as an "unprotected 
female," 128-129; grows a mustache, 129; 
comment of uncle Bache McEvers on, 130; 
meets Samuel Lover, 131; impressions of, 
131; passes with credit the American 
Medical Association examination, 132; on 
day of graduation, receives offer of an ap- 
pointment from the Chilean Government, 
132; reasons for declining same, 133; ap- 
pointed a Resident Physician in Emigrant 
Refuge Hospital on Ward's Island, 1 850, 135 ; 
serious attack of typhus- or ship-fever, 136; 
recurrence of illness, 136; institutes open-air 
treatrnent for ship-fever, 137; work among 
the Irish immigrants, 140; hears Jenny Lind 
sing at Castle Garden, 1850, 143; brews an 
arrack punch on the occasion of a ball 
on Ward's Island, great success of, 145-146; 
appointed Visiting Physician in hospital, 
146; begins practice in New York, 146; 
attends ball given by Mrs. Coventry Wad- 
dell, 148; rents house in Fourth Avenue, in 
1853, 149; popularity of new home with , 
yotmger set, 149 ; risks life in visiting Ward's 
Island during blizzard, 1853, 152; attack of 
rheumatic fever following exposure, 153; 
ordered to Bermuda to recuperate, 153; 
details of visit to, 154 #.; repast of whale- 
steak and onions, 156; shark stories, 156; 
marriage of, to Miss Catherine R. Duncan, 
158 #■; voyage up the Mississippi River, 
I59#-; affectionate reception of wife by 
family, 161; resumes service as Visiting 
Physician to Emigrant Refuge Hospital, 
162; work in cholera ward, 162-163; 
loses position in hospital, and develops 
private practice, 163-164; appointed As- 
sistant Surgeon to Woman's Hospital As- 
sociation, 167; summer at Tucker's Island, 
168; purchases a house on Madison Ave., 
169; death of mother of , 1859, 169; cruises 
with Robert Edgar on yacht Widgeon, 170; 
summer of 1861, at Newport, 171 ; charm of 
Narragansett Pier, 171 ; good fishing at, 171 
ff.; mosquitoes near Tower Hill, R. I., 173; 
entertainments at Narragansett Pier, 175- 
176; goes to ball at Massasoit Hotel as an 
"unprotected ftmale," 176; outbreak of the 
Civil War, 177 #.; views of, upon "State 
Rights," 178, 179; opinion of President 
Lincoln, 180; goes to Virginia in 1861 and is 
arrested at Lynchburg, 180; visits President 
Davis at Montgomery, Ala., 181 ; advised to 



return to New York, 181; why never 
drafted for the army, 182; the "Draft 
riots," 184-185; difficulties in voting for 
Gen. McClellan, 186-187; aids Confederate 
prisoners, 187-188; on departure of Dr. 
Sims for Europe, allowed to operate on 
probation in Woman's Hospital, 188 ff.; 
appointed Surgeon-in-chief, 190; eccen- 
tricities of some of Consulting Board, 191- 
192; prepares memoir of Dr. Sims, 198; 
interference of Lady Managers with work 
of, in Woman's Hospital, 198 ff.\ elected 
member of Board of Managers, N. Y. 
Institute for the Blind, 202; Surgeon-in- 
chief to Woman's Hospital at the age of 
thirty- three, 202-203; begins to teach, 204; 
physicians from all parts of the world at- 
tend clinics, 204; lack of interest in mathe- 
matics, 204; applies laws of mechanics to 
plastic surgery, 206; began to write Princi- 
ples and Practice of Gynecology, 206; revo- 
lutionized physical treatment of yoimg 
women at critical period, 207 ff.; typical 
case, 208; male patients never attractive to, 
210; interest in children, 210; interesting 
case in private hospital, 210 ff.; subsequent 
history of patient, 214; emphasizes impor- 
tance of cleanliness in surgical operations, 
214-215; application of plastic surgery in 
curing vesico-vaginal fistula, 215; reads 
paper on the subject at meeting of Ameri- 
can Gynecological Society in 1879, 215; 
important results of, 216; introduces use of 
scissors instead of knife, in surgery, 216; 
collection of Americajia of, 219-220; 
important results of mission at St. Stephen's 
Church, 224 j9". ; views of, upon the Catholic 
Church and the Protestant sects, 225 ff.; 
hears sermon by Father Gross and be- 
comes a Catholic, 229-230; publishes work 
on Vesica- Vaginal Fistula from Parturi- 
tion and other Causes, in 1868, 231; made 
member of many European medical socie- 
ties, 231 ; action of the Obstetrical Society of 
London, 231-232; reads a paper at meet- 
ing of American Gynsecological Society of 
Philadelphia, in 1878, which changed the 
practice of midwifery throughout the 
world, 232; threatened with nervous col- 
lapse in 1 87 1, sails for Europe in steam- 
ship Russia, 235; incidents of the voyage, 
235 #•; visits Ireland and Scotland, 237- 
238; visits London, and has experience with 
Poole, the tailor, 239-240; attends dinner 
given by descendants of French officers 
who served in American Revolutionary 
War, 240; experience of, on spire of Stras- 
burg Cathedral, 241; visits Switzerland, 
241 ^. ; Vienna and Budapest, 243 ; influence 
of letter of introduction from General 
Grant, 243^.; enters Russia, 244; witnesses 
marriage at St. Petersburg, 244; review of 
80,000 troops by the Czar, 245; Russian 
army, opinion of, 245-246; general im- 
pressions of Russia, 248^.; visits Finland 
and Sweden, 253; meets an interesting 
Russian admiral, who did not believe 
a fish story, 253-254; returns to Amer- 
ica and resumes teaching and writing 



Index 



473 



Emmet, Thomas Addis ( Continued) 

on the specialty, 258 ff.; writing tinder 
difficulties, 259; incidents of family life, 
260—261 ; completes work on Principles 
and Practice of Gynecology, 261; dedicates 
work to memory of father, 262; work re- 
fused by New York publisher, 262; ac- 
cepted by Henry C. Lea of Philadelphia, 
262; success of, in America and Europe, 
263; Dr. John Scott's opinion of value of, 
263-264; becomes member of Irish Relief 
Committee for U. S., 264; bad effects of 
tobacco on, 264-266; receives degree of Doc- 
tor of Laws from Jefferson Medical College, 
266 ; early interest in conditions in Ireland, 
266-267 ; under constant supervision of the 
police during visit to Ireland, 269-270; 
obtains much information concerning the 
Eromet family from Dr. Madden, 269; 
writes history of The Emmet Family, 269; 
begins work on Ireland under English Rule, 
271; visits Europe in 1899, 276^.; illness 
of family, 276; breaks leg at Glengariff, 
Ireland, 277; impressions of Charles S. 
Parnell, 278-281; elected president of the 
Irish National Federation of America, 282 ; 
goes abroad to study conditions in Ireland, 
283-284; wins Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien 
from the influence of the Pamellites, 284; 
important result of, 284; returns to New 
York and issues circular letter concerning 
Irish affairs, 284; full text of, 421-423; 
writesletter to New York Freeman's Journal 
concerning Irish affairs, 284; full text of, 
423-424; entertains Lord and Lady Aber- 
deen, 285; presides at turbulent Home Rule 
meeting at Cooper Union, 285-286; letter 
of, to Chauncey Depew concerning Parnell, 
286-288; attends meeting of miners at 
Scranton, Pa., 288; mass meeting at Cooper 
Union, 288-289; efforts in behalf of Irish 
party in general election of 1893, 289 #.; 
writes letter to N. Y. Sun replying to Lord 
Salisbury's attack on Irish Americans, 
292; goes abroad again in September, 1894, 
in endeavor to bring about harmony 
amongst Irish leaders, 293; unsuccessful 
issue of journey, 294; letter of, to Justin H. 
McCarthy in relation to dissensions among 
Irish members of Parliament, 294; full 
text of , 428-429; letter of , to New York 
Sun regarding subscription by Mr. Glad- 
stone to Irish fund, 295-296; exposes plot 
of London Times to discredit Irish national 
members of Parliament in connection with 
Phoenix Park murders, 2ggff.; arduous 
labors of, as president of Irish National 
Federation of America, 298/.; breaks 
down from overwork, 303; ordered to 
Bermuda, January, 1896, 303; Irish Na- 
tional party, 303; full text of, 432-434; 
letter of, to New York Herald in relation to 
serious illness of, 303-304; prayers for re- 
covery of, by Irish Catholic servant girls, 
304; attributes recovery in large part to 
prayers of faith, 304 ; kindness of the Gover- 
nor of Bermuda, 305-306; closes his private 
hospital, 305; valuable library of Americana 
of, 305-308 ; disposed of owing to a supposed 



incurable disease, 307; finally acquired 
by the Lenox Library, 308; sends Joseph 
P. Ryan to Dublin Convention, 309; 
lectures at Cooper Union on "England's 
Destruction of Ireland's Manufactures, 
Commerce, and Population," 310; issues 
work on The Emmet Family, 310; meets 
Abram S. Hewitt, 310; the Laetare Medal 
conferred upon, 313; illuminated address 
presented; with Medal , 3 1 4-3 1 6 ; resigns posi- 
tion as Surgeon to Woman's Hospital, 316; 
record of over forty -five years' service in, 
317 ; difficulties encountered in, owing to in- 
trigue and "wire-pulling, " 317^. ; called up- 
on by Managers of Woman's Hospital to 
exercise influence, in behalf of Woman's 
Hospital, 322; successful issue of, 324; 
secures help of Board of Aldermen for 
sale of site owned by Woman's Hospital, 
324-325; meets Richard Croker, 324-325; 
ingratitude of Board of Governors of 
Woman's Hospital in disregarding request 
of, to be appointed Emeritus Surgeon and 
to have son succeed him as Surgeon, 327- 
328; services of, in hospitals, 330; private 
hospital of, 330; views of, upon manage- 
ment of hospitals, 331 ff.; interesting inter- 
view with Dr. Charles Carroll Lee, 340; re- 
ceives letters from Michael Fox, 342, 436; 
visits Ireland in 1903 in attempt to locate 
burial place of Robert Emmet, 343^. ; text 
of report of Stephen J. Richardson concern- 
ing, 344; publishes Ireland under English 
Rule, in 1903, 351; celebrates golden 
wedding in 1904, 351; Pope Pius X sends 
special blessing and portrait, 352; golden 
wedding reception, 352-354; leaves for 
Florida, 354 ; views of, relating to contagious 
nature of grip, 354-355; while ill in_ bed, 
receives invitation to a public dinner in his 
honor on his seventy-seventh birthday, 357 ; 
beneficial results from efforts in preparing 
an address for, 357 ; account of the dinner, 
which was a notable one in many respects, 
358 /. ; address of, at, 372-373 ; prints a sou- 
venir volume giving a report of the dinner, 
374; loving cup presented to, 373-375; sud- 
den death of wife of, 375; spends winter 
of 1905-6 at Palm Beach, Fla., 376; sustains 
painful injury, 376; writes an article on the 
Battle of Harlem Heights, 376-377; meets 
with a further injury at Narragansett Pier, 
1906, 377; created Knight Commander of 
the Order of St. Gregory the Great, by Pope 
Pius X, 377; invested with insignia of the 
Order by Archbishop Farley, 377; account 
of the proceedings, 377 ff. ; writes important 
letters to the public press relating to Irish 
affairs, 380^. ; visits Scotland in 1907, 381- 
382 ; studies Irish affairs from the English 
standpoint, 382; letter to Irish World 
embodying views concerning, 382; text of 
letter, 448-455; on return from Florida in 
April, 1908, begins work on second edition 
of Ireland under English Rule, 382 ; suggests 
"Home Rule all round," i.e., for Scotland 
and Wales as well as Ireland, which would 
be beneficial to England also, 388, 390-393, 
423 (this is probably the first suggestion 



474 



Ind 



ex 



Emmet, Thomas Addis (Coticluded) 

of what may be the solution of the Home 
Rule problem); completes preparation 
of second edition of Ireland under English 
Rule, 394; predicted many years ago present 
conflict in Great Britain between House 
of Commons and House of Lords, 396; 
views of, concerning the change in social, 
religious, and economic conditions in the 
United States, during past seventy-five 
years, 397 #.; views of, on cold storage, 
402 /. ; illness of, from eating cold-storage 
food, 403; visit of T. P. O'Connor to, in 
March, 1907, 409; Mr. O'Connor's account 
of, as published in the Irish Packet, 409-41 1 ; 
second visit of Mr. O'Connor, accompanied 
by Messrs. Michael J. Ryan and T. B. Fitz- 
patrick, Christmas eve, 1909, 411-412; 
receipt of a Christmas card recalls interest- 
ing professional incident forty years before, 
412-414; closing reflections, 414-416; par- 
tial list of contributions of, to medical 
literature, 460-463 ; honors conferred upon 
and positions held in hospitals by, 464-465 

Emmet, Thomas Addis, grandson of the 
author, 375 

Emmet, Mrs. Thomas Addis, wife of Dr. 
Emmet (Miss Catherine R. Duncan), 157- 
158; marriage of, 158/.; golden wedding of , 
352; known as "Mother of St. Stephen's," 
352; sudden death of, 375 

Emmet, Tucker, death of, 29 

Emmet, William Colville, 116 

Emmet, William J., 168 



Farley, Archbishop, 352, 366; address of, at 
dinner to Dr. Emmet, 367-368 ; invests Dr. 
Emmet with insignia of Order of St. 
Gregory the Great, 378; address of, 378-379 

Fenian movement, the, 272-273 

Firearms, bad effects of carrying of, 17 

Fitzpatrick, T. B., 310, 411-412 

Food, high cost of, due in part to high tarifif, 
403; remedy lies in placing all articles of 
food on free list, 405 

Forbes, Rev. John Murray, 61 

Ford, Patrick, letter of, to Dr. Emmet, 389 

Forrest, Edwin, actor, 131 

Fort Delaware, where Confederate prisoners 
were confined, not a model prison, 188 

Fort George, Scotland, Thomas Addis Em- 
met, grandfather of author, and his wife, 
imprisoned there, 238 

Fowler, Madame, 70 

Fox, Michael, services of, to the Irish cause, 
342 ; letter of, to Dr. Emmet in relation to 
United Irish League, 436; Dr. Emmet s 
tribute to, 437 

Francis, Dr. Mott, 126 

Francis, Dr. John W., borrows Miss Emmet's 
portrait of Robert Fulton and fails to 
return it, 122; author of Old New York, 125 

Franklin, Benjamin, 55 

Franklin Medical School, Philadelphia, 113 

Frazer, Prof. Alexander, 349 

Fuller, J. F., 347 

Fulton, Father, 214 



Fulton No. I, U. S. gunboat, designed by 
Robert Fulton, 124 

Fulton, Robert, portrait of, by Elizabeth 
Emmet (later Mrs. Wm. H. LeRoy), 
fraudulently attributed to Benjamin West, 
122/., 457-458; Life of, by Cadwallader D. 
Colden, 122; intimate relations of, with 
the Emmet family, 122; builds U. S. gun- 
boat Fulton No. I, 125; death of, 125 



Gage, Rev. Mr., 87 

Gallagher, Patrick, 342 

Gamble, Rev. Thomas, 346 

Garesche, Mr., 109-110 

Genin, John W., the hatter, 144 

Gerard, James W., 149 

Gilmer, Thomas W., Secretary of the Navy, 
43 

Gilmore, Mrs. ["Aunt"], of Baltimore, 58, 59 

Gilmore, Robert, 59 

Gladstone, W. E., 270-271, 289; Home Rule 
bill of, defeated by the Lords, 27 1 ; Coercion 
Act of, 273-274; meets son of Dr. Emmet, 
278; returned to power by aid of Irish 
members, 290 

Gleason, Patrick, importance of work of, in 
Irish National Federation, 437 

Gliddon, George R., 199 

Gold, the only true standard, 397 ; accumula- 
tion of, during the past sixty years, 397; 
effect of accumulation of gold upon other 
products, 398 

Goodrich, Mr. ("Peter Parley"), author, 150 

Gordon, Lord George, 446 

Gordon, Dr. S. C, 364; address of, at dinner 
to Dr. Emmet, 364-366 

Government archives, removed from Washing- 
ton during War of 1812, destruction of, 216 

Grace, William R., 264 

Grant, President, question of third term of, 
232-233 

Graves, Edward Boonen, 64, 150 

Graves, Mrs. Edward B., 74 

Greene, General Nathaniel, 150 

Grip, contagious nature of, 254-255 

Griswold, John N. A., marries Miss Emmet, 
169 

Gross, Rev. Father W. H., later Bishop of 
Savannah and Archbishop of Portland, 
Ore., preaches in St. Stephen's Church and 
converts Dr. Emmet, 229—231 

H 

Haines, Charles G., tribute of, to Thomas 

Addis Emmet, 257-258 
Hale, Nathan, 89 
Hamilton, Alexander, cause of duel with 

Aaron Burr, 218 
Hamilton Square, New York, intended to be 

a memorial to Alexander Hamilton, 91 
Hammond, Lord, English Minister to U. S., 

123 
Hancock, John, 56 
Hanks, Dr. Horace T., 321 
Harlem Heights, Battle of, article on, in 



Ind 



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475 



Harlem Heights {Continued) 

Magazine of History, 377; extracts from, 
438-445 

Harlem Railroad, the, 85, 86 

Harris, N. R., brother-in-law of the author, 
158 

Harris, Mrs., sister of Mrs. T. A. Emmet, 158 

Harrison, Dr. George T., 320, 368; address of, 
at dinner to Dr. Emmet, 368-369 

Hawks, Rev. Dr. Francis L., 76, 86 

Hewitt, Abram S., recalls death and funeral of 
Thomas Addis Emmet, grandfather of Dr. 
Emmet, 310-312 

High cost of living, 403; due to tariff, remedy 
for, may be secured by putting all articles 
of food on free list, 405 

Kingston, Sir William, 371; address of, at 
dinner to Dr. Emmet, 371-372 

History of New York, by Mrs. Lamb, 438, 445 

History of the United States, by George Tucker, 
44 

Hoffman, Francis L., 219 

Hoffman House Committee to aid Ireland, 267 

Hoguet, Henry L., 264 

Holmes, Robert, 132, 346, 395 

Holmes, Mrs. Robert, Robert Emmet's sister, 

^ 346 

Home Rule in Ireland, efforts in America in 
behalf of, 285^.; nuUification of the Act 
of Union first step towards, 380; suggestion 
of Dr. Emmet in 1891 for "Home Rule all 
round, " i.e., to apply the same doctrine to 
Scotland and Wales as well as to Ireland, 
388, 390-393, 423; present feeling of edu- 
cated people in England towards, 448 #. 

Home Rule Bulletin, the, 293 

Hone, Philip, Mayor of New York City, 70 

Hoop-skirts, a novel objection to, 192 

Hoppin, Wm. W., 321 

Hosack, Dr. David, 116 

Hospitals, consideration of present system of 
management in, 331/.; treatment of 
young physicians in, 332 ff.; women not 
fitted to judge qualifications of physicians in, 
335-336; illustration cited, 336-337 ; Catho- 
lic hospitals should be Church property, 
338-339; Jewish hospitals, as a rule, better 
managed than those rmder care of Christ- 
ians, 340; positions held by Dr. Emmet in, 
464-465 

House of Industry founded by Mrs. William 
H. LeRoy, 164 

House of Lords, British, should be remodelled 
after pattern of U. S. Senate, but mem- 
bers elected; 391; many years ago Dr. 
Emmet predicted present conflict between 
House of Commons and, 396-397 

Hoyt, Gould, 117 

Hughes, Archbishop, course of, as Bishop 
during the "Know-Nothing" troubles of 
1849, 119-120; action of, during the "Draft 
riot," 184-185; sent abroad by Mr. Lincoln 
on a secret mission, 185 

Huguenots, the, medal relating to, 240 



Immigration in the United States, beneficial 
results of, 398 



Ireland, famine in, in 1847-8, 128; sufferings 
of the people in consequence, 138 ; consump- 
tion of spirits in, as compared with Great 
Britain, 131-132; attitude of English 
Government toward, I40_^. ; English assist- 
ance to Orangemen, 141 ; condition of, in 
1880, 266-267; past history of, source of 
pride, 271 ; effects of Coercion Act in, 274- 
276; martial law in, and leaders imprisoned, 
277; arrogance of police in, 277-278; 
party strife in, culminates in Justin Mc- 
Carthy displacing C. S. Parnell, 278; dissen- 
sions amongst leaders, 284, 293,^.; general 
election of 1893 in, 289; financial aid from 
America, 289; first step toward Home 
Rule in, must be nullification of the Act of 
Union, 380-381 ; national spirit in people of, 
383; necessity for the Irish to revive their 
own industries, 387 ; Irish cause injured by 
Parnell, 421-423; present feeling of edu- 
cated English people towards, 448-455 

Ireland under English Rule, by T. A. Emmet, 
first edition of, published in 1903, 351; 
second edition, published in 1909, largely 
rewritten, forming practically a new work, 
and being supplementary to the first edi- 
tion, 394 #.; unique features of, 395 

Irish-Americans, Lord Salisbury's attack on, 
292; Dr. Emmet's reply to, 424-428 

Irish Convention in New York, May 7, 1891, 
281 

Irish emigrants, sufferings of, during voyage 
to America, I38jf. 

Irish influence in American Revolution, 423 

Irish language, importance of, 395; revival 
of the use of, 407-409 

Irish members of Parliament, dissensions 
among, 294; letters of Dr. Emmet in 
relation to, 428^. 

Irish National Federation of America, the, 
282; Dr. Emmet elected president of, 282; 
officers of, 282; importance of aid of, in 
elections of 1893, 289 #.; dissensions in, 
293 1 review of work of, 301 #. ; total amotmt 
remitted to Ireland by, 303 ; dissolution of, 
315; Dr. Emmet's tribute to New York 
Council of, 437-438 

Irish Parliament, letter of James Duane, 
November, 1780, showing that it had the 
right to tax imports from England, 446-447 

Irish Race Convention in Dublin, September 
9, 1896, 308-309 

Irish Relief Committee for the United States, 
264 

Irish World, the, letter of Dr. Emmet to, 
concerning Irish affairs, 380; on present 
feeling of English people towards Ireland 
and Home Rule, 448-455, prints letter of 
the Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, to Dr. 
Emmet, concerning political status of men 
educated for the priesthood in Maynooth 
College, 455-456 

Irving, Washington, 150 

Iselin, Adrian, Sr., 91 



Jacobi, Dr. Abraham, 358 



476 



Index 



James, Catherine, married to Robert Emmet, 

Jr., 117-118 
James, Mrs. Julian, and family present 

"Myers Collection" to New York Public 

Library, 220 
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 108; 

student life in, 113; graduate of, 132; 

confers degree of Doctor of Laws upon au- 
thor, 266 
Jefferson, Thomas, 42, 55 
Jews, condition of, in Russia, 249 
Jones, Chancellor, 64 
Journals of Congress, extract from, concerning 

Battle of Harlem Heights, 443 



K 



Kane, Dr. Elisha Kent, commander of Arctic 
expedition in search of Franklin party 
survivors, iii 

Kean, Edmund, 65 

Kearney, Monsignor, 378 

Kelly, Eugene, 264, 267; president of Hoff- 
man House Committee, 267; elected 
treasurer of the Irish National Federation 
of America, 282; generous contribution of, 
to Irish fund, 289-290; death of, 301; ser- 
vices of, in behalf of Ireland, 301 

Kennedy, John S., purchases Dr. Emmet's 
collection of Americana, 308 

Key, Professor Thomas Hewitt, 44 

Kinney, Dr., purchased the death-mask of 
Robert Emmet, 269 

" KJnow-Nothing " party, the, 1 19-120, 131 

Knox, Gen., 90 



Laetare Medal, the, conferred upon Dr. 
Emmet, 313; Irish American's account of 
ceremony, 313; history of, 314 

Land Act (in Ireland) of 1870, credit for, due 
to Chichester Fortescue, 270; passage of, in 
1 88 1 due to influence of Mr. Gladstone, 270; 
importance of, as the entering wedge, 271 

Lavelle, Monsignor, 378 

Lea, Henry C, offers to publish my book, 
262 

Leary, Arthur, 99 

Lee, Dr. Charles Carroll, 336-337, 340 

Lee, Richard Henry, 55 

Lee, General Robert E., 280 

Leney, W. S., 122 

Lent, Dr., Cold Spring, N. Y., 201 

LeRoy, Wm. H., 121 

LeRoy, Mrs. Wm. H. (Elizabeth Emmet), 
121; painted portrait of Robert Fulton, 
engraved, and fraudulently attributed to 
Benjamin West, 122, 457-458; paints por- 
traits of her father and mother, 124-125; 
later paintings of, 128; founded House of 
Industry, 164 

Le Vert, Mrs. Dr., 199 

Lewis, Meriwether, 42 

Lewis, General Morgan, 116 

Lincoln, President, calls for troops at be- 
ginning of Civil War, 178; Dr. Emmet's 
estimate of, 180 



Lind, Jenny, sings at Castle Garden in 1850, 

143 
Lives of United Irishmen, The, by Dr. R. R. 

Madden, 268 
Livingston, John R., 149 
Livingston, Maturin, 116 
Livingston, Robert R., 55, 56 
London Times, employs Tynan (connected 

with Phoenix Park miirders) to discredit 

Irish National members of Parliament, 

299 #• 
Long, Professor George, 44 
Lowndes, Major Rollins, 117 
Lowndes, William, 117 
Lyceum, New York, stormy meeting at, 

296-297 
Lynch, James, 264 
Lynch, Thomas, Jr., 305 

M 

McCaffrey, Hugh, 290 

McCarthy, Justin, 293-294; letter of Dr. 

Emmet to, in relation to dissensions among 

Irish members of Parliament, 294; full 

text of, 428-429 
McClellan, General, candidate for President of 

the U. S., mode of conducting the election 

in New York, 185-186 
McCready, Monsignor, 378 
McCluskey, Rev. Father John, afterwards 

Cardinal Archbishop, 118 
McEvers, Bache, uncle of author, 91; count- 
ing-house of, destroyed by fire, in 1843, loi 
McEvers, Mrs. Bache, 3 
McGlynn, Rev. Dr., 285 
McKean, John, 56, 64 
McLane, Allan, 176 
Macdonnel, Peter, loyalty of, to Irish cause, 

309 
McMackin, Rev. O. J., 378 
Macnevin, Dr. William J., 64, 65; established 

the first employment agency, 65 
Macnevin, Dr., son of the Irish patriot, 135 
Macready, William Charles, actor, 130 
Madden, Dr. Richard R., author of The 

Lives of United Irishmen, 268-269, 344, 347 
Madison, James, 42 
Madison, Mrs. James, warm friend of Mrs. 

J. P. Emmet, 42 
Mallett, Dr. G. H., 304, 357 
Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, the, 181-182 
Marie, Peter, 149 
Marshall, John, Chief Justice of Supreme 

Court, 36 
Mason, George, author of the Bill of Rights, 55 
Mason, Lt.-Com. T. B. M., 220 
Maury, Commander Matthew F., U. S. N., 

author of Physical Geography of the Sea, 

42,43 
May, Colonel, a remarkable horseman, 113 
Maynooth College, Ireland, letter of Dr. 

Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, concerning 

political status of men educated for the 

priesthood in, 407, 456 
Meagher, Thomas Francis, Irish patriot, 138 
Medical literature, partial list of Dr. Emmet's 

contributions to, 460-463 
Memorial Hospital, 196 



Ind 



ex 



477 



Mexican War, anecdotes of, 111-112 

Middleton, Arthur, 124 

Mississippi River, the, voyage up, 159 #. 

Mitchel, John, Irish patriot, 138 

Mitchell, Dr. J. K., 109 

Mitchell, Dr. S. Weir, 115-116 

Money, as much a commodity as cotton or 
wheat, etc., 399; should be fully employed 
in development of the resources of the 
country, 399; "cheap money" never an 
indication of real prosperity, 399; evil of 
giving paper money the value of specie, 400 

Money and Banks, by George Tucker, 45 

Monroe, James, 42 

Mont Alto, N. Y., 91 

Monterey, battle of, remarkable military 
manoeuvre at, 111-112 

Montgomery, General Richard, 64 

Mooney, Monsignor, 378 

Moore, Clement C, author of A Visit from 
St. Nicholas, 98, 99 

Morea, Va., home of the Emmet family, 18, 20 

Morris, Louis, one of the signers of the Declar- 
ation of Independence, 150 

Morris, Louis, Jr., 150 

Morris, Sabina, 150 

Morus multicaulis craze, disastrous results 
of the, 15 

Mosquitoes near Tower Hill, R. I., 173; death 
of negro caused by, 173 

Mount Rigi railroad, 241-242 

"Myers Collection," the, presented to New 
York Public Library by Mrs. Julian James 
and family, 220 

Myers, Theodore Bailey, 219, 235, 323 

N 

Narragansett Pier, R. I., 171 

Negro music, early in the nineteenth century, 
peculiar fascination of, 23 

Negroes, peculiar idea of honesty of, 26-28; 
outbreak of, under Nat Turner, 39; first 
public school in America was for, in South 
Carolina, 40 

Neilson, Samuel, Irish patriot, 77 

New Haven Railroad, terrible accident on, 
in 1853, 157 

Newport, R. I., 171 

New York City, early recollections of, 60 _^., 
93; condition of streets in 1843, 94; street 
cries in, 95 ; volunteer Fire Department, 95 ; 
great fire in, in 1843, 101-102; outbreak 
of cholera in, in 1854, 162-163; "Draft 
riots" in, 184 

New York Freeman's Journal, the, letter of 
Dr. Emmet to, concerning Irish affairs, 
423-424 

New York Herald, frustrates plan of London 
Times to discredit the Irish National 
members of Parliament in connection with 
Phoenix Park murders, 299 jf.; letter from 
Dr. Emmet to, 303; full text of letter of 
Emmet to, concerning the National party 
in Ireland, 432-434 

New York Institute for the Blind, Dr. 
Emmet a manager of, 202 

New York Public Library, the, "Emmet 
Collection" of Americana in, 220, 308; 



"Myers Collection " presented to, by Mrs. 
Julian James and family, 220 

New York Sun, letter of Dr. Emmet to, reply- 
ing to Lord Salisbury's attack on Irish- 
Americans, 424-428 

Niblo's Garden, 71 

Nott, Dr. Josiah, 198, 200 

Nursery and Child's Hospital, New York, the, 
164, 165 

Nye, Captain, of brig Catherine, 85; remark- 
able escape of, 85 

O 

O'Brien, William, 276; released from prison 

and takes Dr. Emmet's advice, 284 
Obstetrical Society of London, why Dr. 

Emmet was not made a member of, 231-232 
O'Connell's uncalled-for abuse of leaders in 

Irish "Rebellion" of 1798, 128 
O'Connor, T. P., visits Dr. Emmet, March, 

1907, 409; publishes accoimt of visit in the 

Irish Packet, 409-41 1 ; second visit of 

Christmas eve, 1909, 411 
O'Conor, Charles, 255; anecdote of, concern- 
ing procession of Orangemen in New York, 

July 12, 1824, 256/. 
O'Donnell, Mrs. ["Aunt"], of Baltimore, 58, 

59 
O'Donnell, General, 59 
O'Gorman, Richard, Irish patriot, 138, 264 
O'Leary, Rev. Father Arthur, quoted, vii 
Old New York, by Dr. J. W. Francis, 125 
Orangemen, parade of, in New York, July 12, 

1824, 256^.; in Ireland, responsible for 

religious disturbances, 427 
O'Reilly, John Boyle, 273 
Ormsby, Sir Lambert H., 349 
Osier, Dr. William, dinner to, by members 

of the medical profession, 357 
Ova€, Mrs., 198-199; burned to death in 

Windsor Hotel fire, 1899, 199 

P 

Panama Railroad, building of, attended with 

a frightful mortality, 145 
Paper money, evil from giving legal value of 

specie to, 401 
Parker, Mrs. ["Aunt"], of Baltimore, 58, 59 
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 267; displaced as 

leader of Irish party by Justin McCarthy, 

278; Dr. Emmet's impressions of, 278- 

281; letter of Dr. Emmet to Chauncey 

Depew concerning, 286-288; injury to the 

cause of Ireland by, 421-424 
Parsons, Mr., interest of, in erecting a statue 

to Nathan Hale, 90 
Parsons, John E., 321, 336 
Parsons, General Samuel H., 90; services of, 

during the Revolution, 90 
Paterson, Dr. Robert M., iii 
Paulus Hook, block-house in Revolutionary 

War, 217 
Peabody, Mrs. Judge, 196 
Peel, Sir Robert, 140 
Penn, William, 60 
Pennsylvania, U. S. S., 97 
Petrie, Mr., who took death-mask of Robert 

Emmet, 269 



478 



Ind 



ex 



Philadelphia, early impressions of, 59, 60 
Phoenix Park murders, the, 298 #. 

Physical Geography of the Sea, by M. F. 

Maury, 43 
Pius X, Pope, sends special blessing and por- 
trait to Dr. and Mrs. Emmet on occasion of 
golden wedding, 352; creates Dr. Emmet 
Kjiight Commander of the Order of St. 
Gregory the Great, 377; translation of 
brief of, conferring title, 458-459 

Playfair, Dr., of London, 231-232 

Poe, Edgar Allan, 43 

Polk, President, 53 

Polk, Dr. W. M., chairman at dinner to Dr. 
Emmet, 360; address of, at, 361-362 

Pollock, George, 440 

Poole, the London tailor, 240 

Powderly, T. V. 288 

Power, Tyrone, 72 

Principles and Practice of Gyncecology, The, 
206; reprinted in Europe, 209; wide- 
spread influence of, 210; dedicated to 
memory of Dr. J. P. Emmet, 262; declined 
by New York publisher, but accepted by 
Henry C. Lea of Philadelphia, 1879, 262; 
success of, in America and in Europe, 263 

Protection to home industries and free trade, 
relation of, in the United States, 402 

Protestants, divisions amongst, 266^. 

Protestants, in Ireland, intolerance of, when 
Orangemen, 427 

Public school, first one in the cotmtry was for 
negroes in South Carolina, 40 

Public schools in America, criticism of system 
of education in, 250-252 

Putnam, George Palmer, founder of the pub- 
lishing house of G. P. Putnam's Sons, 151 



Quaid, David A., 347 
Quakers, impression made by, 60 
Quinlan, Dr. F. J., 369; address of, at dinner 
to Dr. Emmet, 369-371 



R 



Railroads, Washington to Baltimore and Al- 
bany to Schenectady, the first operated in 

the United States, 57, 58 
Randolph, John, 36, 38; emancipates his 

negroes and divides his property among 

them, 38 
Ravenel, Dr. William C, 137-138 
Ravenel, Mrs. Daniel, 137 
Redmond, John E., success of, as leader of 

the Irish party, 341-342; letter of Dr. 

Emmet to, during first visit of, after elected 

leader, 434-435 
Reformation, the, 226 _^. 
Repeal movement, the, 128 
Revere House, the, at Narragansett Pier, 175 
Richards, Lieut. Samuel, diary of, concerning 

Battle of Harlem Heights, 441-442 
Richmond Theatre, burning of, with great loss 

of life, 45 
Riker, Recorder Richard, 87 
Rives, William C. U. S. Minister to France, 

42 



Robinson, Rev. Stanford F. H., 347 

Rodman, Captain, 174 

Rodney, Caesar, his vote secured the passage 
of the Declaration of Independence, 56, 57 

Rogers, Prof. Wm. B., 206 

Rooney, John J., 438 

Roosevelt, Theodore, father of ex-President 
Roosevelt, 168; experience of , at Narragan- 
sett Pier, 175 

Roosevelt, Theodore, ex-President, childhood 
of, 168 

Rowan, Archibald Hamilton, 130 

Ruschenberger, Dr., Surgeon-in-chief, U.S.N. , 
132-133 

Russell, Lord John, 140 

Russia, fleet of, offered the U. S. Govern- 
ment, 185; visit to, 245-246; efficiency of 
army of, 2 45 ; war with Japan, 246 ; causes of 
Russia's failure, 246 ; character of Czar, 247 ; 
general conditions in, 248^.; Jews in, 249 

Russia, the steamship, 235 

Russian army, efficiency of, 245-246 

Ryan, Joseph P., 282, 288; goes to Irish Race 
Convention in Dublin, 309, 310; death of, 
315; Dr. Emmet's tribute to work of, in 
Irish National Federation, 316, 437 

Ryan, Michael J., 411-412 



Sage, Mrs. Russell, 321 

St. Ann's Church, New York, 62 

St. Bartholomew, massacre of, the, 240-241 

St. James's Episcopal Church, 91 

St. John's Church, New York, 61 

St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, founded by 
Dean Swift, 66 

St. Paul's Church, New York City, 64, 65 

St. Thomas's Hall, near Flushing, 76 

St. Thomas's school, breaking up of, 86 

Salisbury, Lord, speech of, on the Irish in 
America, 292; Dr. Emmet's rejoinder, in 
letter to the New York Sun, 292; full text 
of, 424-428 

Saunderson, Col. Edward, 396 

Scott, General WLnfield, 117 

Scranton, Pa., meeting at, of miners in sym- 
pathy with Home Rule, 288 

Scribner, G. H., 221 

Scribner, Miss, marriage of, to D. McN. 
Stauffer, 221-222 

Scudder Museum, the, 63 

Semmes, Miss, beauty of, sister of Captain 
Semmes of the Alabama, 1 50-1 51 

Semmes, Thomas, 151 

Sewell, Robert, 264 

Sherman, Roger, 55 

Shea, John Gilmary, 314 

Shirley, Governor, 66 

Shooting stars in the year 1835, effect of, upon 
the negroes, 21 

Sims, Dr. Marion, 166; inventions and 
work of, 166-167; in connection with 
Woman's Hospital, 188-189, 196 #. 

Smith, Stephen, 358 

Some of the Diseases of Women, by Dr. 
Robert Emmet, of Dublin, in 1742, the 
great-grandfather of author, 252 



Index 



479 



" Some Popular Myths in American History," 
article refuting views of New England 
writers, by Dr. Emmet, 39, 40 

Southern Literary Messenger, 43 

Southern States, condition of society in, 
early in nineteenth century, 38, 39 

Spirits, consumption of, in Ireland as com- 
pared with Great Britain, 131-132 

Sponge-hunters of Bermuda, 156 

Springier House, the, 219 

Stanton, Secretary, 188 

Staten Island as a summer resort in 1850, 144 

"States Rights, " origin of, 178-179; influence 
of Irish settlers concerning, 180 

Stauffer, David McN., 220-223; marries Miss 
Scribner, 221; writes work on early Ameri- 
can engravers, 222-223 

Stevenson, Andrew, U. S. Minister to Eng- 
land, 42 

Stewart, A. T., 62 

Stockton, Commander, 43 

Strasburg Cathedral, 241 

Stuart, Miss Jane, Newport, R. I., 176 

Stuart, Gilbert, painter, place of birth, 176 

Supreme Court of the United States, packing 
of, to give paper money the legal value 
of specie, 400-401 

Surratt, Mrs., 188 

Sweeny, Peter B., excellent record of, as Park 
Commissioner, 322-323 

Swift, Dean, founds St. Patrick's Hospital, 
Dublin, 66 



Talbot, Charles N., 321 

Tammany Hall, inner workings of, 325-326 

Tariff, high, evil effects of, 398, 400-402; for 
revenue, seldom for protection, and never 
to exceed 10 per cent, as an indirect tax, 
402 

Temple, Robert, 65, 67 

Temple, Sir John, 65, 67 

Thackeray, William M., 106 

Thompson, John R., editor of the Southern 
Literary Messenger, 43 

Thomson, Charles, 56 

Tobacco, bad effects of, on author, 264-266 

Townsend , puts his sarsaparilla on the 

market, 164; advertising schemes of, 164 

"Townsend's Sarsaparilla, " 164 

T-rail, the invention of, 47 

Trans-Siberian Railroad, 246 

Transubstantiation, doctrine of, 226 

Trinidad, the brig, 156; long voyage of, from 
Bermuda, 156-157 

Trist, Nicholas P., chief clerk State Depart- 
ment, III 

Tryon,_ admiral in British Navy, loses his 
life in collision of the Camperdown, 254; 
correspondence with, 254 

Tryon, Governor of North Carolina and New 
York before the Revolution, grandfather 
of Admiral Tryon of the British Navy, 254 

Tucker, Dr. David H., 113 

Tucker family, the, 2 

Tucker, Prof. George, 2, 44, 45, 97, 98 

Tucker, Henry, description of plantation of, 
34 #- 



Tucker's Island, now known as Premirun 
Point, 168 

Tucker, Miss Mary Byrd Farley, later wife 
of Dr. John Patten Emmet, 2 

Tucker, Richard Jennings, 61 

Tucker, St. George, 2 

Tucker, Dr. Thomas Tudor, 2, 36; appointed 
by Washington Treasurer of the United 
States, 37 

Tuite, Thomas P., 126 

Turner, Nat, organizes outbreak of negroes 
in Virginia, 39 

Tweed, William, 73 

Tweedmouth, Lord, contributes to Irish 
fund, 294 

Tynan, , "No. i," concerned in murder 

of Lord Cavendish and Mr. Burke, 298; 
employed by the London Times to dis- 
credit the Irish National members of Par- 
liament, 29 ff. 

U 

United Irish League, important work of, 
not only in reviving the Irish language, but 
in uniting the people, 272; organization of 
first branch of, organized by members 
of the Irish National Federation, 341; 
services of, in behalf of Ireland, 342 

United States, changes in, during the past 
seventy-five years in religious, social, and 
economic conditions, 397^.; accumulation 
of gold in, 398; causes factitious increase of 
wealth in, 398; higher cost of living in, 
398; beneficial results of immigration, 
398; capital in, should be fully used in 
developing natural resources, 399; general 
indebtedness of, 399-400; evil effects of a 
high tariff in, 398, 400-402 

United States Bank, effect of failure of, 400 

University of Virginia, birthplace of Thomas 
Addis Emmet, 2; Faculty of, all men of 
note, 44/. 

Upshur, Abel P., 43 



Van Buren, Dr. William H., 235 
Van Buren, Martin, 53 
Van Volkenburg, Philip, 321 
Verplanck, Gulian C, 147, 440 
Vesico-Vaginal Fistula from Parturition and 

other Causes, work on, by Dr. Emmet, 231; 

international endorsement of value of, 231 
Vesico-vaginal fistula, application of plastic 

surgery in curing of, 215; Dr. Emmet's 

work on, published in 1868, 231 
Virginia, first railroad in, 47 



W 



Waddell, Mrs. Coventry, 148-149 

Walker, Le Roy Pope, Confederate Secretary 

of War, 181 
Wallace, Dr., 114; advice of, concerning 

a surgical operation, 115 
Wallace, Dr. William B., 282-283 
Walsh, Dr. James L., address of, at reception 

to Dr. Emmet, 379-380 



48o 



Index 



Walton, George, 199 

Ward's Island, Emigrant Hospital on, in 

1850, 135/- 
"Watchmen" of New York City, object to 

wearing "livery," 149; uselessness of, 149 
Watson, William, 264 
Wayne, General Anthony, 217 
Webster, Daniel, 53 
West, Benjamin, engraved portrait of Robert 

Fulton painted by Elizabeth Emmet 

fraudulently attributed to, who never 

painted a known portrait of Fid ton, 121 ff., 

457-458 
Westminster, Duke of, anecdote concerning, 

43 
Widgeon, schooner yacht owned by Robert 

Edgar, 170 
"Wild-Cat" bank, the, 15 
Willing, Miss Anne, 59 
Windsor Hotel fire, the, 199 
Wirt, William, 43 
Wirz, Capt. Henry, in charge at Anderson- 

ville, 188 



Woman's Hospital Association, organization 
of, 166; importance of work of, 166-167; 
Dr. Emmet's services to 166 ff. 

Woman's Hospital, the. Dr. Emmet resigns 
as Surgeon of, after forty-five years' seri'ice, 
316; reviews connection with, and describes 
difficulties encountered owing to intrigue 
and "wire-pulling," 319 ff.; secures aid 
from State due to Dr. Emmet's influence, 
324; removes to Morningside Heights, 32^^,; 
disregards Dr. Emmet's request that he be 
appointed Emeritus Surgeon and his son be 
appointed his successor as Surgeon, 327- 
328; Lady Managers' fear of Jesuit in- 
fluence in, 336-337 

Women, not fitted by nature to decide on 
questions depending upon strict logical 
reasoning, 335-336 

Wood, William B., actor, 1 09-1 10 



Young Ireland movement, 128 



Practically a New Work 



IRELAND 

UNDER 

ENGLISH RULE 

Or a Plea for the Plaintiff 

By 
Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., LL.D. 

President of the Irish National Federation of America; 
Kright-Commander, Order St. Gregory the Great 

Second Edition, Revised, and in Large Part Rewritten 
Two Volumes, 8vo. Net, $5.00, Carriage, 30 cts. 

The second edition of Ireland Under English Rule is 
essentially a new book, and those who already have on their 
shelves a set of the work in its original edition will wel- 
come this second edition as supplementing the facts and 
arguments presented in the earlier work. 

The record of misrule and oppression is truly a dark 
one, but at last there seems to be a promise of better things, 
as during the past years the English Parliament has taken 
unexpected action in allowing the passage of certain bills 
for the benefit of the Irish people. It is believed that Dr. 
Emmet's volumes should be convincing not only to Irish- 
men but to all lovers of liberty, and that they should have 
an important influence in bringing about enlightened legis- 
lation to the cause of which such men as Dr. Emmet have 
given the best of their lives. 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York London 



Ireland Under English Rule 



Some Opinions of the Press 

" Dr. Emmet has written an eloquent and scholarly plea in favor of 
Ireland. He never allows his indignation to get the better of his criti- 
cal judgment, and his indictment is drawn with an evidently sincere effort 
at fairness and impartiality. . . . The work contains an exhaustive 
index, and these two substantial and instructive volumes can be recom- 
mended as a reference-book to those interested in present-day Irish 
events." — JV. Y. Eve. Post. 

" Since Mathew Carey's ' Hibernije Vindicias,' nothing approaching 
it in value has appeared. So fully and truthfully is Ireland's part in the 
history of nations here put forth that if no other book were written or to 
be written covering that subject we should have nothing to bemoan." 

N. y. Irish World. 

" There have been many who set to work to state the case of Ireland, 
from the days of Molyneux down to our own, but Dr. Emmet's work 
is worth all these put together, since he has gathered in what the others 
have overlooked or could not get at, and made his picture complete so 
far as the limits of his scheme permitted." 

Catholic Standard and Times. 

' ' We commend the volume to all historical students. . . . We 
have rarely read a couple of volumes so eminently calculated to make 
one investigate the question dealt with. It is a controversial work, 
excellently written, cleverly compiled, and far more valuable than a mere 
history could possibly be." — The Irish Tipnes of Dublin. 

" Every student of Irish history, every student of general history, 
should read Dr. Emmet's admirable work. No man has written with 
better authority, and no name can carry more of patriotic commendation 
with it than the illustrious name of Emmet." — Chicago Citizen. 

"This work is probably the clearest presentation of Ireland's wrongs 
and the strongest indictment of English rule in Ireland that has ever 
been made." — Indianapolis Journal. 



^^ G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York Londc 



FEB 28 1911 



( 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

illlilllllllllllJ 

021 062 155 6 



